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Letter ReferenceLytton 01229/6
ArchiveLytton Family Papers, Knebworth
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date28 July 1893
Address From66 Marina, St Leonards, East Sussex
Address To
Who ToConstance Lytton
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to the Knebworth House Archive (www.knebworthhouse.com) for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter to Lady Constance Lytton, which is part of the Knebworth collections.
166 Marina
2St Leonards-on-Sea
3July 28 / 93
4
5Thank you so much for giving that picture to Alice Corthorn. I value
6so much every thing that brings beauty & fresh tenderness into her
7life. She has to fight life so single handed. They say there’s a very
8good description of her in a novel about women medical students which
9has just been written; have you seen it?
10
11I hope it is resting you very much to be in the country. I spent one
12day in London, & it seemed to take away all the life from one in a few
13hours. I am beginning to feel more & more the terrible-ness of men
14herding together in those great cityies where not one of the
15conditions for a joyous beautiful life are present.
16
17I’m so glad to be in this place; it’s not Matjesfontein, but even here
18lying in the ?stones on the bank one could enjoy ones friends
19
20Oh I wish I had you here if only for one day. We couldn’t see each
21other in London because when we did meet we were both too tired. I
22suppose it’s a thing there is no hope of???
23
24I have got a large journal of Seymour Fort’s about his travels ^in
25Mashona land.^. I wonder if there would be any harm in letting Adela
26see it? My feeling is so strongly its best for her to know as much
27about him as possible. It’s so terrible this way we women dream &
28dream of things absent & unattainable. We are stronger than men before
29the actual, but it’s these dreams & unsatisfied yearnings that take
30all the life out of one.
31
32There is so many things I want to talk about but they are not things
33one can write of
33
34Good bye.
35Olive
36
37I shall be here till the middle of September
38
Notation
The novel Alice Corthorn appeared as a character in has not been established. The ‘large journal’ by Seymour Fort might have been a manuscript as no such item appears among his publications, while its contents may have been used in writing his studies of Jameson and Beit. See G. Seymour Fort (1908) Dr Jameson London: Hurst & Blackett; and (1932) Alfred Beit: A Study of the Man and His Work London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson.