"Fighting Boer women" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box7/Fold4/Mar-Dec1920/44 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 5 December 1920 |
| Address From | Oak Hall, Wynburg, Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Betty Molteno |
| 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 was resident at Oak Hall, Wynburg, from late October 1920 to her death on 11 December 1920.
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1My darling darling Betty
2
3I do so hope there will be a letter from you tomorrow. Sometime I
4feels it will be the last I shall get - but it may not be.
5
6Tomorrow I hear the steamer with all your dear people is expected to
7arrive. I fear it will be long before I see any of them if they are
8going to Miller’s Point.
9
10I am going to write to Jan Smuts & many others. Influenza of the
11stomach is raging here now Margaretta Purcell is ill, & has two nurses
12to attend to do her; Ruth’s little boy is very ill too, & Ursies boy.
13 My sister-in-law has it but not badly. The hospitals are full &
14it’s hard to get nurses.
15
16We have had two days of the greatest heat I have ever known in my life.
17 At the observatory it was only 95 in the shade, but here in my room
18it must have been at least 110. I never felt such heat on board ship
19or in de Aar. If I were able to walk about I am sure I would find a
20room somewhere at Sea Point or somewhere, even if I had to pay all I
21have for it.
22
23I have not seen any one this week, except Ruth Alexander & have no
24news to give you of the folk: & I have not read any thing, except for
25the times & Argus, as I can’t go to the library. I hope you
26haven’t found the fogs too bad, & am so glad you have the lectures.
27There has been no more native news in the papers. Alexander made a
28good saying he would not join the new Party, so he will go in as an
29Independent.
30
31Alexander has gone to England, but will be there only 10 days.
32
33Good bye my own darling Betty. Think of me sometimes, dear. Life’s
34much harder here than it was in England – it not a country for sick
35people.
36
37Good bye
38Olive
39
40At the Hotels here they never charge less than £1 a day for the
41smallest room. I’m paying
42
43^ten pound a month for this tiny hole & rooms are not be had^
44
45^Oh darling, your little house was so touching to me. It seemed a kind
46of home to me because you & Alice were there: That & the graveyard at
47Maitland are the only place in Africa that seem Home to me.^
48
49I should be less alone in Rome or Florence
50
51^Later^
52Margaretta Purcell has typhoid fever & has two nurses & is very bad
53
2
3I do so hope there will be a letter from you tomorrow. Sometime I
4feels it will be the last I shall get - but it may not be.
5
6Tomorrow I hear the steamer with all your dear people is expected to
7arrive. I fear it will be long before I see any of them if they are
8going to Miller’s Point.
9
10I am going to write to Jan Smuts & many others. Influenza of the
11stomach is raging here now Margaretta Purcell is ill, & has two nurses
12to attend to do her; Ruth’s little boy is very ill too, & Ursies boy.
13 My sister-in-law has it but not badly. The hospitals are full &
14it’s hard to get nurses.
15
16We have had two days of the greatest heat I have ever known in my life.
17 At the observatory it was only 95 in the shade, but here in my room
18it must have been at least 110. I never felt such heat on board ship
19or in de Aar. If I were able to walk about I am sure I would find a
20room somewhere at Sea Point or somewhere, even if I had to pay all I
21have for it.
22
23I have not seen any one this week, except Ruth Alexander & have no
24news to give you of the folk: & I have not read any thing, except for
25the times & Argus, as I can’t go to the library. I hope you
26haven’t found the fogs too bad, & am so glad you have the lectures.
27There has been no more native news in the papers. Alexander made a
28good saying he would not join the new Party, so he will go in as an
29Independent.
30
31Alexander has gone to England, but will be there only 10 days.
32
33Good bye my own darling Betty. Think of me sometimes, dear. Life’s
34much harder here than it was in England – it not a country for sick
35people.
36
37Good bye
38Olive
39
40At the Hotels here they never charge less than £1 a day for the
41smallest room. I’m paying
42
43^ten pound a month for this tiny hole & rooms are not be had^
44
45^Oh darling, your little house was so touching to me. It seemed a kind
46of home to me because you & Alice were there: That & the graveyard at
47Maitland are the only place in Africa that seem Home to me.^
48
49I should be less alone in Rome or Florence
50
51^Later^
52Margaretta Purcell has typhoid fever & has two nurses & is very bad
53