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Letter ReferenceSchreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/153
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date After Start: Tuesday April 1912 ; Before End: June 1912
Address FromDe Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToHenrietta (‘Ettie’) Schreiner m. Stakesby Lewis (1891)
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease 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. This letter has been dated by reference to content around the final illness of Ettie Stakesby Lewis. 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 De Aar
2 Tuesday
3
4 My darling
5
6 Thank you for your dear letters. I can’t make out how the man has
7been so long putting the fireplace in. I had a fireplace put in the
8corner of my room at Hanover. The man began one morning, & at three
9the next afternoon it was finished, plastered & all - & the man paid &
10gone. I do hope you will find it a comfort. If you have a weather-cock
11for the top it will keep it from smoking under any condition of wind.
12But well built it ought not to smoke without one.
13
14 Have they tried "Buchu" leaves, a tea made from them for your kidneys?
15I’ve drunk a lot & found much help from it: the old Hottentots knew
16its use before we came here. But I think a combination of things that
17act on the kidneys is the most helpful. I find also that working the
18flesh of the hips helps the action of the kidneys. Oh it is so awful
19when they won’t act. I am longing to hear something has helped you.
20I do hope you will find the fire a comfort.
21
22 Good bye my own darling
23 Your little sister who loves you
24 Olive
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