"Influence & marriage" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Miscellaneous MSC 26/2.25.1 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 13 November 1889 |
| Address From | Montague, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Havelock Ellis |
| Other Versions | |
| 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. This letter is a copy in what seems to be Havelock Ellis’s hand-writing, with no salutation at the start. The original cannot be traced.
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1
Montague
2 Nov. 13. 89.
3
4 This is a little desolate up-country town among the mts. Rocks, rocks,
5rocks piled all about me. I left Cape Town last Wednesday & went to
6Visch Hoek; as soon as I got here I got worse; They sent for the Dr
7from the next town & he ordered me to come leave at once & come up
8country. We have been travelled 4 days, Ettie & Robert Hemming my
9brother in law & I. We got here to-day & were going on tomorrow or the
10next day to Ceres which is the best lung place in the Colony, but this
11evening I got a telegram to say that my mother is dangerously ill. If
12I get a telegram to say she is no better tomorrow I must start for
13Grahamstown. It is a journey 3 days & 4 nights from here. I am in a
14dazed state & do not seem to feel or understand any thing, my chest
15has kept me awake so many nights. Thank you for your letter. I read it
16over & over. I would like to have any kind of books or papers in this
17country it is so different from England. Please write to me as often
18as you can. Yours & Mrs Philpot are the only people I have heard from
19since I left England except Editors asking me for a novel. Vischhoek
20was so beautiful, more beautiful than any words can describe. Please
21send this line on to Alice as I have no time to write any letter but
22this & ask her to send it to Mrs Brown & show it to Eleanor as they
23will not know why I don't write.
24
25 Olive
26
27 Address Mt Vernon Cape Town. Please send me the money as soon as the
28Editor gives it I need it.
29
30
31
2 Nov. 13. 89.
3
4 This is a little desolate up-country town among the mts. Rocks, rocks,
5rocks piled all about me. I left Cape Town last Wednesday & went to
6Visch Hoek; as soon as I got here I got worse; They sent for the Dr
7from the next town & he ordered me to come leave at once & come up
8country. We have been travelled 4 days, Ettie & Robert Hemming my
9brother in law & I. We got here to-day & were going on tomorrow or the
10next day to Ceres which is the best lung place in the Colony, but this
11evening I got a telegram to say that my mother is dangerously ill. If
12I get a telegram to say she is no better tomorrow I must start for
13Grahamstown. It is a journey 3 days & 4 nights from here. I am in a
14dazed state & do not seem to feel or understand any thing, my chest
15has kept me awake so many nights. Thank you for your letter. I read it
16over & over. I would like to have any kind of books or papers in this
17country it is so different from England. Please write to me as often
18as you can. Yours & Mrs Philpot are the only people I have heard from
19since I left England except Editors asking me for a novel. Vischhoek
20was so beautiful, more beautiful than any words can describe. Please
21send this line on to Alice as I have no time to write any letter but
22this & ask her to send it to Mrs Brown & show it to Eleanor as they
23will not know why I don't write.
24
25 Olive
26
27 Address Mt Vernon Cape Town. Please send me the money as soon as the
28Editor gives it I need it.
29
30
31