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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold3/1896/34
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date1 December 1896
Address FromThe Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Address ToStone Lodge, Rondebosch, Cape Town, Western Cape
Who ToJessie Rose Innes nee Dods Pringle
Other VersionsRive 1987: 297-8
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. The address this letter was sent to is provided by an attached envelope.
1 The Homestead
2 Dec 1st 1896
3
4 Dear Jessie
5
6 How do you get off your bike?? That’s the great question in life to
7me now. I can ride on level ground, but or up hill or down hill, but I
8can’t get off & I can’t get on! The way I get off is to fall over
9bicycle & all. There must be some dodge I don’t know of or else my
10bike is much too high for me. Every time I get off I hurt myself so
11awfully between the legs. Neither Cron or I have had any one to teach
12us, & I expect there are a great many little wrinkles. Cron dislocated
13his arm when he was learning & has to keep it in a sling for a
14fortnight. You will see from this letter that I am quite bicycle mad
15at present.
16
17 We are sailing for England on the 6th of January in the Dunvegan
18Castle. My friends Miss Molteno & Miss Green are going with us. It
19would be beautiful if you & Mr Innes were coming too. Can’t you?
20
21 I’ve only had one short note from Mary Sauer since she was in
22England; she seemed depressed & sad, but didn’t give me any reason
23for it. Her two little girls & nurse stayed with my friend Alice
24Corthorn
for a month. Alice says she got wonderfully fond of the
25children in that short time.
26
27 We shall stay with Alice Corthorn too while we are in London. She has
28got a nice house Kensington & is getting a good practice. She thinks
29that the doctor & nurse did not perhaps attend to me properly after my
30baby’s birth & that is why I have these repeated mishaps, so I am
31going to see a specialist.
32
33 We shall only be a few days in London & then go on to Italy for the
34winter, returning to London in May for the season. It would be
35splendid if you & Mr Innes could come & we could all go on the
36continent together. It will be very beautiful to see all my friends in
37England again & live among them for a while.
38
39 Good bye. Love to Dorothy.
40 Yours ever
41 Olive
42
43 I am so glad to see in the paper that Mr Innes has taken to bicycling:
44it will do him much good.
45
46 OS
47
48
49
Notation
Rive?s (1987) version is in a number of respects incorrect.