"Great meerkat attack on Dutch parson" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Katie Findlay MSC 26/2.14.6 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 2 November 1875 |
| Address From | Ganna Hoek, Halesowen, Eastern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Catherine ('Katie') Findlay nee Schreiner |
| Other Versions | Rive 1987: 19 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections.
|
1
Ganna Hoek
2 Nov 2nd 1875
3
4 My dear Katie!
5
6 I was indeed beginning to fancy that I should never hear of or from
7you again & was very glad when Mr Fouchee came home from Cradock
8yesterday evening bringing me your letter.
9
10 I am so glad to hear that dear little Katie is getting on so well at
11Cape Town. I wrote to her a few weeks back. Willie seems delighted
12with his niece & writes glowing accounts of her. Do you think of
13sending Georgie to school soon?
14
15 I am hoping to be able to get into Cradock the week after next, as Mrs
16Fouchee is going in to have her baby baptised & I mean to have my
17photo taken & if it turns out at all well will send you one next time
18I write. I will be much disappointed if I can’t go in, as in the eight
19months I have been here I have only been in once & am quite longing
20for the sight of English faces again.
21
22I have just been reading the paper with Ettie’s last speech in it.
23Friends writing from the fields, say that when ever she speaks she
24seems quite to carry away ^by^ her earnest manner & eloquent delivery,
25all her audience. I should very much like to hear her speak in public.
26
27I have quite given up all idea of going to America. Getting a salary
28of thirty pounds a year I might save till I was eighty before I had
29got enough to take me there. The year I have promised to remain here,
30ends in February & Mrs Fouchee wants me to agree for another four, but
31I shall not do so. & am not even sure that I shall not when the year
32is done advertise for another situation. I have had the offer of two
33very good ones lately, one in which I would get 70 & in the other
34eighty pounds but there were a great many drawbacks to them & I have
35no intention of accepting either of them. Money is not every thing
36that has to be considered.
37
38My children are getting on well; they quite astonish me by the
39progress they make. The eldest girl sometimes shows an amount of
40thought that one finds in very few English children.
41
42It is getting dark so I must bring this letter to a hasty close & I
43hope it is not to remain as long with out an answer as the last
44
45Give much love & many kisses to the children & with much for yourself
46
47I remain dearest Katie
48Your affecte sister
49Olive Schreiner
50
2 Nov 2nd 1875
3
4 My dear Katie!
5
6 I was indeed beginning to fancy that I should never hear of or from
7you again & was very glad when Mr Fouchee came home from Cradock
8yesterday evening bringing me your letter.
9
10 I am so glad to hear that dear little Katie is getting on so well at
11Cape Town. I wrote to her a few weeks back. Willie seems delighted
12with his niece & writes glowing accounts of her. Do you think of
13sending Georgie to school soon?
14
15 I am hoping to be able to get into Cradock the week after next, as Mrs
16Fouchee is going in to have her baby baptised & I mean to have my
17photo taken & if it turns out at all well will send you one next time
18I write. I will be much disappointed if I can’t go in, as in the eight
19months I have been here I have only been in once & am quite longing
20for the sight of English faces again.
21
22I have just been reading the paper with Ettie’s last speech in it.
23Friends writing from the fields, say that when ever she speaks she
24seems quite to carry away ^by^ her earnest manner & eloquent delivery,
25all her audience. I should very much like to hear her speak in public.
26
27I have quite given up all idea of going to America. Getting a salary
28of thirty pounds a year I might save till I was eighty before I had
29got enough to take me there. The year I have promised to remain here,
30ends in February & Mrs Fouchee wants me to agree for another four, but
31I shall not do so. & am not even sure that I shall not when the year
32is done advertise for another situation. I have had the offer of two
33very good ones lately, one in which I would get 70 & in the other
34eighty pounds but there were a great many drawbacks to them & I have
35no intention of accepting either of them. Money is not every thing
36that has to be considered.
37
38My children are getting on well; they quite astonish me by the
39progress they make. The eldest girl sometimes shows an amount of
40thought that one finds in very few English children.
41
42It is getting dark so I must bring this letter to a hasty close & I
43hope it is not to remain as long with out an answer as the last
44
45Give much love & many kisses to the children & with much for yourself
46
47I remain dearest Katie
48Your affecte sister
49Olive Schreiner
50
Notation
The newspaper report of Ettie Schreiner's (later Stakesby Lewis) speech cannot be traced. Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.
The newspaper report of Ettie Schreiner's (later Stakesby Lewis) speech cannot be traced. Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.