"My heart is heavy over my work" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold3/1896/24 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Wednesday 20 August 1896 |
| Address From | Coles Hotel, Kowie River (Port Alfred), Eastern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Betty Molteno |
| Other Versions | Rive 1987: 288-9 |
| Permissions | Please 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. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand.
|
1
^Coles Hotel^
2 The Kowie
3 Wednesday
4
5 Dear Friend,
6
7 I’ve just got your note. We have had a most splendid ten days we
8here. Our movements are not certain. If we knew you were coming we
9Can’t you come next week for a couple of days We shall unless I
10should get asthma stay here till the end of this unreadable month
11leaving here on the 31st for Webbers farm & then for home. We are
12hoping Mr Lloyd may come here next week for a couple of days.
13
14 The first four days we were here we did nothing but bathe & walk about
15bare foot on the sand, but the other morning I woke, & as I opened my
16eyes there was an allegory full fledged in my mind! A sort of allegory
17story about Matabele land. So I’ve been writing hard ever since. I
18shall get it copied out & sent off to England by Saturday I hope, &
19then I will bathe all day again. Oh I do wish you & Miss Greene could
20come. I am very anxious to get a place for a splendid young Englishman
21on a farm – a real hard worker though unreadable ^a gentleman.^ He
22doesn’t want any pay. Do you think your brother
23
24^at Stormberg might want him if I wrote about him? Cron says he would
25be glad to have him if we were on the farm that he’s of a really
26good sort. I am wonderfully better. It would do you both good to come
27Cron sends his love. We brought Mill with us, & he will try to swim
28out into the big breakers. ^
29
30 Yours
31 Olive
32
33
34
2 The Kowie
3 Wednesday
4
5 Dear Friend,
6
7 I’ve just got your note. We have had a most splendid ten days we
8here. Our movements are not certain. If we knew you were coming we
9Can’t you come next week for a couple of days We shall unless I
10should get asthma stay here till the end of this unreadable month
11leaving here on the 31st for Webbers farm & then for home. We are
12hoping Mr Lloyd may come here next week for a couple of days.
13
14 The first four days we were here we did nothing but bathe & walk about
15bare foot on the sand, but the other morning I woke, & as I opened my
16eyes there was an allegory full fledged in my mind! A sort of allegory
17story about Matabele land. So I’ve been writing hard ever since. I
18shall get it copied out & sent off to England by Saturday I hope, &
19then I will bathe all day again. Oh I do wish you & Miss Greene could
20come. I am very anxious to get a place for a splendid young Englishman
21on a farm – a real hard worker though unreadable ^a gentleman.^ He
22doesn’t want any pay. Do you think your brother
23
24^at Stormberg might want him if I wrote about him? Cron says he would
25be glad to have him if we were on the farm that he’s of a really
26good sort. I am wonderfully better. It would do you both good to come
27Cron sends his love. We brought Mill with us, & he will try to swim
28out into the big breakers. ^
29
30 Yours
31 Olive
32
33
34
Notation
The 'sort of allegory' referred to is Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland. Rive's (1987) version of this letter omits part of it.
The 'sort of allegory' referred to is Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland. Rive's (1987) version of this letter omits part of it.