"Emily Hobhouse, Vrouemonument, funny story" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box4/Fold4/1911/33 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | After Start: Saturday July 1911 ; Before End: December 1911 |
| Address From | De Aar, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | William Philip ('Will') Schreiner |
| Other Versions | |
| 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 year has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in De Aar from November 1907 until she left South Africa for Britain and Europe in December 1913, with some fairly lengthy visits elsewhere over this time. Will Schreiner went to Britain in July 1911.
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1
Saturday
2
3 Dear old Man
4
5 I hope you’ll have a good time of rest. You need it. I’m so glad
6our little woman is going to Cambridge. She can look about her, & find
7her feet. It’ll be good for Oliver & her to be near together.
8
9 Send me your London address on a post card before leaving. I hope the
10Purcell’s are going by the steamer you are going by. I think you
11would like old Purcell a man rather after your own heart if you really
12knew him.
13
14 I’m sorry Mrs Macfadyen is going to air the wickedness & debasedness
15of our natives, & the sweet innocence of our white women who the men
16won’t defend them! I am going to try & write a little letter to the
17races congress this afternoon, but I fear I shan’t pull it off. It
18seems to ?me my brain & nervous system that have broken down even more
19than my body.
20
21 Try to see Adela. She’s longing to see you & Ursula too.
22
23 It’s rather tragic about your bag & papers. Adela’s address is 4
24Gloucester Place, Portman Sq in case you lost it with your other
25addresses. I hope you got the Kalabash I told them to send you. But
26you won’t be needing it now till you come back. I hope you are going
27to Nauheim again.
28
29 It was wicked of you to send me those £3 by Oliver. He wouldn’t
30take them back. Of course I went wildly on the spree with them, motor
31car, boats & all sorts of sprees, not to speak of sodas & unreadable &
32baskets. It was a wonderful break in my solitary life here. I’ve not
33been out of the front door since the day I returned from the Zambesi;
34& have not seen or spoken to a human creature except my coloured
35servant girl. I think it’s the strange solitude of my life up
36country that tells on me as well as the height. Cron goes off to his
37business at eight, returns for 20 minutes for lunch & at 6 or 7 in the
38evening for supper & then goes to his writing & bookkeeping till he
39goes to his room at 10. So I seldom exchange a word with any one.
40
41 Drop me a line when you are in London, if the spirit moves you, just
42to let me know how it goes.
43
44 Good bye dear one.
45 Ol.
46
47
48
2
3 Dear old Man
4
5 I hope you’ll have a good time of rest. You need it. I’m so glad
6our little woman is going to Cambridge. She can look about her, & find
7her feet. It’ll be good for Oliver & her to be near together.
8
9 Send me your London address on a post card before leaving. I hope the
10Purcell’s are going by the steamer you are going by. I think you
11would like old Purcell a man rather after your own heart if you really
12knew him.
13
14 I’m sorry Mrs Macfadyen is going to air the wickedness & debasedness
15of our natives, & the sweet innocence of our white women who the men
16won’t defend them! I am going to try & write a little letter to the
17races congress this afternoon, but I fear I shan’t pull it off. It
18seems to ?me my brain & nervous system that have broken down even more
19than my body.
20
21 Try to see Adela. She’s longing to see you & Ursula too.
22
23 It’s rather tragic about your bag & papers. Adela’s address is 4
24Gloucester Place, Portman Sq in case you lost it with your other
25addresses. I hope you got the Kalabash I told them to send you. But
26you won’t be needing it now till you come back. I hope you are going
27to Nauheim again.
28
29 It was wicked of you to send me those £3 by Oliver. He wouldn’t
30take them back. Of course I went wildly on the spree with them, motor
31car, boats & all sorts of sprees, not to speak of sodas & unreadable &
32baskets. It was a wonderful break in my solitary life here. I’ve not
33been out of the front door since the day I returned from the Zambesi;
34& have not seen or spoken to a human creature except my coloured
35servant girl. I think it’s the strange solitude of my life up
36country that tells on me as well as the height. Cron goes off to his
37business at eight, returns for 20 minutes for lunch & at 6 or 7 in the
38evening for supper & then goes to his writing & bookkeeping till he
39goes to his room at 10. So I seldom exchange a word with any one.
40
41 Drop me a line when you are in London, if the spirit moves you, just
42to let me know how it goes.
43
44 Good bye dear one.
45 Ol.
46
47
48