"Rebels hard time, house, boy" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Schreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/19 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Sunday November 1889 |
| Address From | Ceres, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Henrietta (?Ettie?) Schreiner m. Stakesby Lewis (1891) |
| 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 month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Content suggests that Schreiner was in Ceres when it was written; she was resident in Ceres for around two weeks in November 1889.
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1
Sunday afternoon
2
3 My old Ettie,
4
5 I enclose mother’s last telegram to me: that settles the question.
6Please return it. Thank you for your letter. Yes, I always understand
7you perfectly. Better I think than any one else in the world does.
8
9 I am better I have not been out of my room yet, but I feel sure I
10shall like this place, only not nearly so well as Vis-choek. I
11couldn’t settle down here without giving Vischoek one more try, but
12I must stay here a week or two before I undertake the journey. I am
13like a child with a fester that doesn’t throb as long as it holds it
14quite still. Perhaps if I came to Vishhoek after you have been living
15there some weeks the air of the house will be different. I have never
16liked a place anywhere so much. Wire whether Robert is to meet you at
17Ceres Rd or if you are coming here. I want you but I would feel so
18reproached if my being here led to fresh meeting & fresh work. There
19is a terrible look that comes over your face sometimes that makes me
20very anxious. Its quickness of going & coming makes me dislike it more
21than anything else. It came over your face once at Montague & once in
22the train. More or less of rest is now an absolute necessity to you.
23It will be such an awful thing when you give in, as you will do sooner
24or later. If we can spend some months at Vis-choek together I believe
25we shall get quite strong; & you require to give a certain time not
26only to writing but to reading, you mind needs rest as much as your
27body. Wire if you are coming on Tuesday morning, that we can see that
28a cart is at the station for you. I want to see you; I feel lost when
29you are away, a curious sense of miss; but I do not wish you to come
30here just for my sake. I am all right. I am afraid Robert has had a
31dull time here by himself. He has been very kind to me
32
33 Give my love to the boys & to dear Wynnie & Effie. Tell them how sorry
34I was not to see them, & give my love to dear old Anna. I was in such
35unreadable ^a state^ I hardly seemed to see any thing.
36
37 Olive
38
39
40
2
3 My old Ettie,
4
5 I enclose mother’s last telegram to me: that settles the question.
6Please return it. Thank you for your letter. Yes, I always understand
7you perfectly. Better I think than any one else in the world does.
8
9 I am better I have not been out of my room yet, but I feel sure I
10shall like this place, only not nearly so well as Vis-choek. I
11couldn’t settle down here without giving Vischoek one more try, but
12I must stay here a week or two before I undertake the journey. I am
13like a child with a fester that doesn’t throb as long as it holds it
14quite still. Perhaps if I came to Vishhoek after you have been living
15there some weeks the air of the house will be different. I have never
16liked a place anywhere so much. Wire whether Robert is to meet you at
17Ceres Rd or if you are coming here. I want you but I would feel so
18reproached if my being here led to fresh meeting & fresh work. There
19is a terrible look that comes over your face sometimes that makes me
20very anxious. Its quickness of going & coming makes me dislike it more
21than anything else. It came over your face once at Montague & once in
22the train. More or less of rest is now an absolute necessity to you.
23It will be such an awful thing when you give in, as you will do sooner
24or later. If we can spend some months at Vis-choek together I believe
25we shall get quite strong; & you require to give a certain time not
26only to writing but to reading, you mind needs rest as much as your
27body. Wire if you are coming on Tuesday morning, that we can see that
28a cart is at the station for you. I want to see you; I feel lost when
29you are away, a curious sense of miss; but I do not wish you to come
30here just for my sake. I am all right. I am afraid Robert has had a
31dull time here by himself. He has been very kind to me
32
33 Give my love to the boys & to dear Wynnie & Effie. Tell them how sorry
34I was not to see them, & give my love to dear old Anna. I was in such
35unreadable ^a state^ I hardly seemed to see any thing.
36
37 Olive
38
39
40