"Heart dying up last 5 or 6 years, 'Soul of a People' like rain falling on dry parched soil" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box7/Fold4/Mar-Dec1920/18
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date1 September 1920
Address FromBirzana, Plumstead, Cape Town, Western Cape
Address ToTrevaldwyn, Llandrindod Wells, Wales
Who ToMay Murray Parker nee Murray
Other Versions
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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 is derived from the postmark on an attached envelope, which also provides the address this letter was sent to. Schreiner stayed with her niece Ursula Scott, her sister-in-law Fan Schreiner, and her friend Lucy Molteno, in Cape Town after her arrival from Britain on 30 August 1920, moving to a boarding-house in Wynberg in late October 1920, where she was resident until her death on 11 December 1920.
1Birzana Plumstead
2Sept 1st
3
4Darling May
5
6I landed on the 30th We had a terrible storm the last two days, but
7got here all right. It was very cold in the tropics; the day one day
8one passed under the equator one wanted all ones wraps!! It was
9bitterly cold the day we got here & has been cold & raining ever since.
10 All the dear friends have been so sweet coming to see me & Anna
11Purcell
is going to motor me out to Cape Point (which I have never
12seen) if the rain leaves off, next Sunday. It seems very hard to find
13a place here; I may have to go to an hotel at Sea Point but even there
14it is difficult to get rooms. There’s a dear little tiny house just
15next to my sister in laws empty but they wont let it; only sell it for
16£1000. I am glad you & Freddie have put off coming till it was warmer.
17 But oh the air is different here from in England, so much clearer &
18lighter even in this rainy weather. I am longing so for the time for
19you all to come. Do try & get Aunt Betty to come. I do feel the change
20would do her good even if she stayed here only for a time.
21
22The food here is so splendid after the terrible food one has been
23having in England; real bread, & real fresh fish – its all real &
24good however simple.
25
26I haven’t heard anything from Lucy since I came I fancy they may be
27away in the country. I’m longing so to see her & the children. Give
28my love to your dear mother. I do hope the change has done her good,
29she needed it much. Also my love to Margaret & Mrs Molteno.
30
31Dear Bessie Reitze came to dinner here last night, & is coming to
32spend a day with me this week.
33
34The hope of South Africa is in the quite young people here. They are
35some of them so fine.
36
37Old Jimmie Logan of Matchesfontein is dead. I wonder who will live at
38Matjesfontein now. I fear its too high for me ever to go there, but
39its such a splendid climate. I always think it would suit Freddy.
40
41Love to you dear
42Olive
43
44We have good news of Dot & her baby. She is going to call it Margaret.
45