"Your words of sympathy re my little story, 'Trooper Peter Halket'" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: John & Mary Brown MSC 26/2.2.19 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 4 June 1920 |
| Address From | 9 Porchester Place, Edgware Road, Westminster, London |
| Address To | |
| Who To | John Brown |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. Schreiner was resident at Porchester Place from early April 1917 until August 1920, when she left Britain for South Africa.
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1
June 4th 1920
2 London
3
4 Dear J.B.
5
6 How goes the world with you? I've not seen Ray again. Alice Corthorn
7tells me she's in the country. I saw Alice three days ago. I shall be
8glad when she drops her work: she's very unwell. She longs so to be
9out of London. I am sailing on the 13th of August for South Africa. I
10don't know if its wise for me to go, I have such a curious foreboding
11feeling but I can't face another winter here alone in this room in the
12fog & dark, I can't: & I'm too ill to go knocking about in Italy alone.
13 The attacks of angina come on so continually & then I can do nothing
14for myself. Here I just sit in my room & go out once a day to buy my
15little bits of food.
16
17 Its very hot here now - for England - but am standing the heat very
18well; its much better than the fog, & rain. We've had four days
19without any rain now, which is wonderful. Such a thing has not
20happened. It will be good to see you & Mary again. You & she & my
21dear old friend John Pursglove are all that are left of the friends of
22my early youth.
23
24 Good bye my dear love to you both
25 Olive
26
27 Have you seen Ruth Alexander since she came back? She's promised to
28try & find quarters for me. I shall go to Ursula & Fan for the first
29few days; but I'm too unfit to trouble any of my friends for long with
30my presence. A person who's always getting angina is so depressing!! I
31would like to get two little rooms somewhere - but its hard to find
32rooms at the Cape Well what happens will happen
33
2 London
3
4 Dear J.B.
5
6 How goes the world with you? I've not seen Ray again. Alice Corthorn
7tells me she's in the country. I saw Alice three days ago. I shall be
8glad when she drops her work: she's very unwell. She longs so to be
9out of London. I am sailing on the 13th of August for South Africa. I
10don't know if its wise for me to go, I have such a curious foreboding
11feeling but I can't face another winter here alone in this room in the
12fog & dark, I can't: & I'm too ill to go knocking about in Italy alone.
13 The attacks of angina come on so continually & then I can do nothing
14for myself. Here I just sit in my room & go out once a day to buy my
15little bits of food.
16
17 Its very hot here now - for England - but am standing the heat very
18well; its much better than the fog, & rain. We've had four days
19without any rain now, which is wonderful. Such a thing has not
20happened. It will be good to see you & Mary again. You & she & my
21dear old friend John Pursglove are all that are left of the friends of
22my early youth.
23
24 Good bye my dear love to you both
25 Olive
26
27 Have you seen Ruth Alexander since she came back? She's promised to
28try & find quarters for me. I shall go to Ursula & Fan for the first
29few days; but I'm too unfit to trouble any of my friends for long with
30my presence. A person who's always getting angina is so depressing!! I
31would like to get two little rooms somewhere - but its hard to find
32rooms at the Cape Well what happens will happen
33