"Am going to meet Rhodes, more solitary in this country than you can conceive" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box6/Fold2/1916/50 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Friday 8 November 1916 |
| Address From | Dawson Place Mansions, Pembridge Square, London |
| Address To | 59 Cadogan Square, Knightsbridge, London |
| Who To | Frances ('Fan') Schreiner nee Reitz |
| 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 of this letter is derived from the postmark on an attached envelope, which also provides the address it was sent to. Schreiner was resident at Dawson Place Mansions from early October to the end of December 1916.
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1Friday
2
3Dear Fan
4
5When I opened the parcel I found you hadn’t put in the Gazette with
6the bit about Oliver. Please keep it for me if you have a spare one.
7The Martingale will be such a comfort to me. I simply long for
8everything warm.
9
10Let me know if you have more news of Bill.
11
12Love to all
13Ol
14
15I hope you enjoyed all the sprees on Monday!
16
17I am going to lunch with Miss ?Nettlefold on Friday, I had such a nice
18little note from Cyril before he left. I have always felt as if he
19wouldn’t come back - & yet perhaps he is just the one who will.
20
2
3Dear Fan
4
5When I opened the parcel I found you hadn’t put in the Gazette with
6the bit about Oliver. Please keep it for me if you have a spare one.
7The Martingale will be such a comfort to me. I simply long for
8everything warm.
9
10Let me know if you have more news of Bill.
11
12Love to all
13Ol
14
15I hope you enjoyed all the sprees on Monday!
16
17I am going to lunch with Miss ?Nettlefold on Friday, I had such a nice
18little note from Cyril before he left. I have always felt as if he
19wouldn’t come back - & yet perhaps he is just the one who will.
20
Notation
Schreiner’s nephew Bill Schreiner fought with South African government forces in German West Africa in 1916; towards the end of the year he and Cronwright-Schreiner met, with this news then passed round the family network via Cronwright’s letter of 10 December 1916 to Schreiner in London, as follows:
‘3.
10 Dec. (Sunday)
It is nearly 12. I am in my pyjamas. It is hot. On the 7th, “Bill” Schreiner wired me from Kimberley that he was passing that afternoon. I met him at ?St and had a pleasant chat. He has lost all his fat, which improves him; he weighs 159, and looks a bit thin: That’s all, the sea-side will soon fill him up again. He says the G. East campaign is virtually over. It is apparently not our plan to cross over to England. What a nice fellow he is & what a gentlemanly good hearted face he has.
4
that should not prevent Liberal Statesmen from unreadable so evil a thing as the military spirit of control.
We want much rain. My Stock fair on the 20th will be comparatively quite a small affair.
Your letter of the 5th November reached me here on the 7th inst.
People are going away holidaying at’
The year has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Its first two pages are missing. Cronwright-Schreiner had enclosed with it the telegram he had received from Bill Schreiner:
‘Kimberley Station
From Schreiner
To Cronwright Schreiner
Passing through to Cape Town today’
The date of Bill Schreiner's telegram and the place it was sent from are provided by its official stamps.
Schreiner’s nephew Bill Schreiner fought with South African government forces in German West Africa in 1916; towards the end of the year he and Cronwright-Schreiner met, with this news then passed round the family network via Cronwright’s letter of 10 December 1916 to Schreiner in London, as follows:
‘3.
10 Dec. (Sunday)
It is nearly 12. I am in my pyjamas. It is hot. On the 7th, “Bill” Schreiner wired me from Kimberley that he was passing that afternoon. I met him at ?St and had a pleasant chat. He has lost all his fat, which improves him; he weighs 159, and looks a bit thin: That’s all, the sea-side will soon fill him up again. He says the G. East campaign is virtually over. It is apparently not our plan to cross over to England. What a nice fellow he is & what a gentlemanly good hearted face he has.
4
that should not prevent Liberal Statesmen from unreadable so evil a thing as the military spirit of control.
We want much rain. My Stock fair on the 20th will be comparatively quite a small affair.
Your letter of the 5th November reached me here on the 7th inst.
People are going away holidaying at’
The year has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Its first two pages are missing. Cronwright-Schreiner had enclosed with it the telegram he had received from Bill Schreiner:
‘Kimberley Station
From Schreiner
To Cronwright Schreiner
Passing through to Cape Town today’
The date of Bill Schreiner's telegram and the place it was sent from are provided by its official stamps.