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Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box6/Fold1/July-Dec1915/7 |
Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | Saturday 31 July 1915 |
Address From | Llandrindod Wells, Wales |
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. The name of the addressee is surmised from content.
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1c/o Dr Parker
2Llandindod Wells
3Wales.
4Saturday
5
6Thank you for your letter, dear. How little we thought this time last
7year how our thoughts would be hanging over those fields of Flanders &
8Northern France, & the dear figure there, these dark days.
9
10I am not quite happy about your teeth. After all I have been reading &
11hearing about the terrible evils that arise in the modern world from
12stopped teeth keeping the poison in; you’ll never get me to have a
13tooth stopped – out they go. (One American medical man – rightly
14or wrongly – calculates that nearly one 4th of the ill health among
15the wealthier Americans arises from stopped & gold topped teeth!) If
16there is a noxious germ inside it cannot escape & must in the end
17poison your blood. My jaw is still very sore especially where I have
18always had the pain – but one must give things time.
19
20The air here is very nice; a most pure air, & very peace ful &
21rest-ful. There are some fine Hotels though the Town is ^very^ small.
22Its all baths & Hotels. There are splendid golf links, on which Lloyd
23George is said to have spent the whole of the two days he spent here
24lately on them. There is a wonderful bunker; a deep narrow valley with
25a stream at the bottom, & you hit straight from one side of the valley
26to the other. If your ball falls short I guess you don’t see it
27again. But the valley is so narrow that a good player generally
28manages it. There are many that unreadable hotels here, but unreadable!
29
30If ever you wanted a quiet restful time, far from the worries of life,
31you’d find this place splendid. There’s a little lake with boats;
32& from the golf course a most wonderful wide view.
33
34I often feel so distressed about Ettie. She complained so much to me
35about 2 & a half or 3 years before her death about her teeth, saying
36that suffering was greater than any other: they all pained her.
37Perhaps if she had had them all out it might have saved her from those
38long years of suffering, which always haunt me. You were able to do so
39much for her, but I did nothing for her.
40
41I am boarding with dear May Parker & her husband. It seems like heaven
42after that place in London. Love
43
44Good dear.
45Olive
46
47This place is only 5 hours from London. If you leave at 10 11 by the
48express train you get here at 4 without changing. I wished the journey
49had been much longer. There are lovely drives near here they say; but
50I have not been for any.
51
2Llandindod Wells
3Wales.
4Saturday
5
6Thank you for your letter, dear. How little we thought this time last
7year how our thoughts would be hanging over those fields of Flanders &
8Northern France, & the dear figure there, these dark days.
9
10I am not quite happy about your teeth. After all I have been reading &
11hearing about the terrible evils that arise in the modern world from
12stopped teeth keeping the poison in; you’ll never get me to have a
13tooth stopped – out they go. (One American medical man – rightly
14or wrongly – calculates that nearly one 4th of the ill health among
15the wealthier Americans arises from stopped & gold topped teeth!) If
16there is a noxious germ inside it cannot escape & must in the end
17poison your blood. My jaw is still very sore especially where I have
18always had the pain – but one must give things time.
19
20The air here is very nice; a most pure air, & very peace ful &
21rest-ful. There are some fine Hotels though the Town is ^very^ small.
22Its all baths & Hotels. There are splendid golf links, on which Lloyd
23George is said to have spent the whole of the two days he spent here
24lately on them. There is a wonderful bunker; a deep narrow valley with
25a stream at the bottom, & you hit straight from one side of the valley
26to the other. If your ball falls short I guess you don’t see it
27again. But the valley is so narrow that a good player generally
28manages it. There are many that unreadable hotels here, but unreadable!
29
30If ever you wanted a quiet restful time, far from the worries of life,
31you’d find this place splendid. There’s a little lake with boats;
32& from the golf course a most wonderful wide view.
33
34I often feel so distressed about Ettie. She complained so much to me
35about 2 & a half or 3 years before her death about her teeth, saying
36that suffering was greater than any other: they all pained her.
37Perhaps if she had had them all out it might have saved her from those
38long years of suffering, which always haunt me. You were able to do so
39much for her, but I did nothing for her.
40
41I am boarding with dear May Parker & her husband. It seems like heaven
42after that place in London. Love
43
44Good dear.
45Olive
46
47This place is only 5 hours from London. If you leave at 10 11 by the
48express train you get here at 4 without changing. I wished the journey
49had been much longer. There are lovely drives near here they say; but
50I have not been for any.
51