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| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box5/Fold3/1914/26 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Friday 15 May 1914 |
| Address From | Black Bull, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire |
| 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 date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner stayed at the Black Bull, Cambridge, for a week in May 1914.
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1Dear Laddie
2
3If I come up tomorrow I’m going to be on my all alone as far as
4paying goes &c
5
6You can’t understand how I enjoyed my time there dear. You are too
7sweet to the people you love, & we all seem able to do so little for
8us in comparison with what you do for us. My plan was to find a little
9quiet bedroom somewhere & take it for a weeks boarding myself & taking
10up some work with me as Cambridge is quite a quiet place one could
11work in. but I went out to usual shops & ask the f women in which part
12they thought I could get rooms, but they didn’t seem to know of any.
13
14There don’t seem to be rooms to let in Cambridge as in other places!!
15
16Of course if we had any anxiety about the beloved child after the
17operation I should stay on any how.
18
19You know I feel about you as you feel about Ol. – as if you were too
20beautiful & unselfish to go on living – I wish you’d be a little
21bit more selfish. I’ve told Alice about Ursie & as I feared she
22might be pained if she didn’t know. She seemed to think from what I
23told her that it was quite right there should be an operation & that
24it would likely go very well. I have a perhaps foolish dislike to
25operations. I have undergone three: & got no good from them! Adela
26Smith is just coming to say good bye.
27
28Thy little sister
29Olive
30
2
3If I come up tomorrow I’m going to be on my all alone as far as
4paying goes &c
5
6You can’t understand how I enjoyed my time there dear. You are too
7sweet to the people you love, & we all seem able to do so little for
8us in comparison with what you do for us. My plan was to find a little
9quiet bedroom somewhere & take it for a weeks boarding myself & taking
10up some work with me as Cambridge is quite a quiet place one could
11work in. but I went out to usual shops & ask the f women in which part
12they thought I could get rooms, but they didn’t seem to know of any.
13
14There don’t seem to be rooms to let in Cambridge as in other places!!
15
16Of course if we had any anxiety about the beloved child after the
17operation I should stay on any how.
18
19You know I feel about you as you feel about Ol. – as if you were too
20beautiful & unselfish to go on living – I wish you’d be a little
21bit more selfish. I’ve told Alice about Ursie & as I feared she
22might be pained if she didn’t know. She seemed to think from what I
23told her that it was quite right there should be an operation & that
24it would likely go very well. I have a perhaps foolish dislike to
25operations. I have undergone three: & got no good from them! Adela
26Smith is just coming to say good bye.
27
28Thy little sister
29Olive
30