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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box3/Fold5/1906/26
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date30 October 1906
Address FromHotel Milner, Matjesfontein, Western Cape
Address ToKenilworth, Cape Town, Western Cape
Who ToCaroline Murray nee Molteno
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. This letter is written on printed headed notepaper and a matching attached envelope provides the address the letter was sent to.
1 Hotel Milner
2 Matjesfontein
3 Oct 30th 1906
4
5 Dear Mrs Murray
6
7 I have been meaning to write to you ever since I came here, but the
8first two or three days I was so delighted at feeling better I could
9do nothing but walk about & enjoy the beauty ever thing. Since then
10the attacks if angina came on again & I have not been able to do any
11thing but I am better to-day.
12
13 I liked that place a Nel’s Poort very much. They are such an
14attractive young couple, & the little baby is so sweet, & the
15situation of the house is ideal. I should much like to go & try it
16some day: the but all my plans are uncertain now. My Husband is going
17to build a little house at de Aar, but it will be eight or nine months
18before it is ready, & I may perhaps go back to Hanover to live there
19by myself till it is ready.
20
21 In that case I shall not be able to see you when you go to
22Johannesburg; but if I am anywhere near the line do let me know when
23you pass.
24
25 It has been a great blow to me that Miss Molteno & Miss Greene are
26really not coming out now. I had always said they might not, but I
27find that in my heart I had always unreadable ^believed^ they would come
28out at the end of the two years.
29
30 And yet I can’t see what they are coming to do in this country
31unless they have some definite work. It’s not a country in which one
32can simply live & enjoy life, as in Europe. Europe is like a great
33splendid drawing room, where you feel as if you were meant to sit down
34& rest & look at all the pretty things; South Africa always seems to
35me like a great fine bare kitchen where one feels one must work or
36there is no reason for one’s being there.
37
38^Miss Hobhouse also invited me to come & spend next month with her in
39Johannesburg, but I can’t go any where that is high up now. I shall
40certainly be here till the 10th of November & perhaps another month if
41I get better. ^
42
43 Yours ever
44 Olive Schreiner
45
46 Thank you so much for all the trouble you took about Nel’s Poort.
47
48
49