"Rhodes as a system" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/17 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 26 February 1879 |
| Address From | Ratel Hoek, Halesowen, Eastern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Erilda Cawood nee Buckley |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 8; Rive 1897: 23 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
When Cronwright-Schreiner prepared The Letters of Olive Schreiner, with few exceptions he then destroyed her originals. However, some people gave him copies and kept the originals or demanded the return of these; and when actual Schreiner letters can be compared with his versions, his have omissions, distortions and bowdlerisations. Where Schreiner originals have survived, these will be found in the relevant collections across the OSLO website. There is however a residue of some 587 items in The Letters for which no originals are extant. They are included here for sake of completeness. However, their relationship to Schreiners actual letters cannot now be gauged, and so they should be read with caution for the reasons given.
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1To Mrs. Cawood.
2Ratel Hoek, 26th Feb.
3
4... Now that the time for leaving begins to come near I begin to feel
5a great pain at my heart; but I would have had to leave in a few
6months' time, and it would not have been easier then than now, but
7rather harder. I really do not think there are in the world two such
8sweet little girls as mine. I never mean to stay at a place so long
9again; you get to care too much for everything and then you must just
10leave it. Even this dear old quiet parlour that has been my study so
11long, I feel as if it wasn't right that I should leave it. I think
12with all its physical suffering the time I have passed here has been
13the quietest and best of my life. ... If I had my way in educating
14children they would have a great deal less to do with dead language
15and a great deal more to do with nature. How interesting and eager the
16little creatures are if you try to explain to them the structure and
17uses of the parts of a flower, but if you have to press an irregular
18verb into their heads what labour it is. I am wonderfully stronger.
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2Ratel Hoek, 26th Feb.
3
4... Now that the time for leaving begins to come near I begin to feel
5a great pain at my heart; but I would have had to leave in a few
6months' time, and it would not have been easier then than now, but
7rather harder. I really do not think there are in the world two such
8sweet little girls as mine. I never mean to stay at a place so long
9again; you get to care too much for everything and then you must just
10leave it. Even this dear old quiet parlour that has been my study so
11long, I feel as if it wasn't right that I should leave it. I think
12with all its physical suffering the time I have passed here has been
13the quietest and best of my life. ... If I had my way in educating
14children they would have a great deal less to do with dead language
15and a great deal more to do with nature. How interesting and eager the
16little creatures are if you try to explain to them the structure and
17uses of the parts of a flower, but if you have to press an irregular
18verb into their heads what labour it is. I am wonderfully stronger.
19