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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box7/Fold3/Jan-Feb1920/13
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date23 January 1920
Address From9 Porchester Place, Edgware Road, Westminster, London
Address To
Who ToLucy Molteno nee Mitchell
Other Versions
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.
19 Porchester Place
2Edgware Rd
3London W
4Jan 23rd 1920
5
6My dear dear Lucy
7
8How I valued the beautiful letter I got from you today. I do long so
9utterly to see my beloved friends in South Africa, but it seems
10difficult to know where I could stay if I came out. My dear friend Mrs
11Haldane Murray
has written to ask me to come out & live on their
12beautiful farm near Graaff Reinet. Her daughter is to be married in
13September & the two children are at school in Cape Town. She will be
14quite alone, & she says I could either board with her, or have th a
15little house to myself that joins on to her verandah, that would be
16splendid, but it would be only possible for me to stay there in ^winter,^
17sum in summer the heat is too intense, & my heart won’t stand heat, &
18on the other hand I can’t live close on the sea shore as at Kalk Bay
19or Muizenberg, for the asthma. There are so few places where I can
20live in Africa. I’ve heard Dr Murrays old home is now a boarding house.
21 Is it so? It always suited me so wonderfully there, the house is so
22well built, & with no trees close about it shutting it in. Do you
23think there would be any chance of my getting an upstairs front room
24there if I did ever come out. There is no chance of my getting to my
25beloved Riviera in Italy, or to Nauheim for the heart cure that I can
26see. Oliver & his wife want me to go out with them when they go in
27September, but I don’t know what I shall do.
28
29I am so glad dear Anna has a car. She must try & get out as much as
30she can. That is the only thing. I’m so glad she has Walter.
31
32Give my love to that darling child Lucy. Tell her I miss her ever so.
33How beautiful it would be to see you all
34
35Olive