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Letter ReferenceSchreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/120
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateSunday 1911
Address FromDe Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToHenrietta (‘Ettie’) Schreiner m. Stakesby Lewis (1891)
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 has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Content indicates that Schreiner was in De Aar when it was written. Schreiner was resident in De Aar from November 1907 until she left South Africa for Britain and Europe in December 1913, but with some fairly lengthy visits elsewhere over this time.
1 My darling
2
3 Thank you so much for your letter. It would be splendid if I could go
4to Blamb Blauwberg for the summer, for I have no where on earth to go,
5& it would be so delightful to be near you. Must I bespeak the room
6now? If so what is the price? You see I may be able to stay here till
7the end of November. Last The Year Last year I left on the 12th of
8November, & two ^three^ years ago I stayed here till the Xmas Day & cook
9Cron his Xmas dinner & then went off in the evening more dead than
10alive. Could I not bespeak the room for December & then if even if I
11can’t come I might let Effie or Ely have it for the month, so the
12money would not be wasted.
13
14 Jan, & above all February & March are my awful times especially near
15the coast, where the air gets damper & heavyer at ?theto I am
16generally better through till Xmas. It’s after Xmas!
17
18 Is there as much sea fog at Blauwberg as at Sea Point & Muizenberg??
19It would be so beautiful if I could come. The only other place I can
20think of is that place in the mountains beyond Wellington. But I would
21have to get some one else to go with me there. unreadable I always
22travel with my primus stove & kettle for poultices &c & I could bring
23my little kettle & pan & do splendidly, especially if one can get milk.
24 My only fear is – can I stay near the sea anywhere in Africa? Oh it
25would be so splendid if I could come; it was so terrible wandering
26about alone all last summer among strangers how ever kind. One gets a
27haunted feeling at last!
28
29 Good bye, my darling.
30 Your little sister
31 Olive
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