"Private, Jameson " Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Schreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/70 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Thursday 1903 |
| Address From | Hanover, Northern 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. This letter has been dated by reference to content. Content suggests that Schreiner was in Hanover when it was written. She was resident in Hanover from September 1900 to October 1907, after 1902 with visits, sometimes fairly lengthy, elsewhere. The major drought referred to was in 1903.
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1
Thursday night
2
3 My darling
4
5 I got back here today, an hour or two ago. One has to have been away
6to know how fearful this hot drought wind & pached earth are. But it
7is so sweet to see Cron again. He leaves the day after tomorrow for
8six weeks.
9
10 The meerkats are all well, except my favourite ‘Arriet who has been
11very ill.
12
13 Your heart would have been rewarded for your trouble in bringing that
14little box of apricots & peaches if you could have seen Cron eating
15them when we came home. He kept saying "This is something like."
16
17 One has to live through a drought like this to know the longing one
18feels for green stuff & fruit. I have felt like another person since I
19gobbled up that basket of strawberries at the railway station the
20first day I was in Cape Town!
21
22 The two women in the train were very nice. They tried to be nasty at
23first, but I so persistently wouldn’t see it, that they ended by
24saying when we parted that it had been "a joy" to travel with me &
25they hoped we would meet again!! & I felt quite sorry to part with
26them.
27
28 My darling, I wish you could get a rest right away somewhere if only
29for a couple of weeks. Won’t you go up with Elberty when he goes up
30to Leurivier Mills? They have had beautiful rains there it isn’t a
31terrible desert like this. I am afraid you hurried down very much ^the
32last day.^ & it will have done you harm.
33
34 Good bye, my dear one. I wonder if life will ever arrange itself so we
35can live somewhere near each other
36 Olive
37
38 ^Love to my dear nephews & pieces. I am so sorry I can see so little of
39them. I feel quite sure Elberty ought to go up to Leeuriever Mills.^
40
2
3 My darling
4
5 I got back here today, an hour or two ago. One has to have been away
6to know how fearful this hot drought wind & pached earth are. But it
7is so sweet to see Cron again. He leaves the day after tomorrow for
8six weeks.
9
10 The meerkats are all well, except my favourite ‘Arriet who has been
11very ill.
12
13 Your heart would have been rewarded for your trouble in bringing that
14little box of apricots & peaches if you could have seen Cron eating
15them when we came home. He kept saying "This is something like."
16
17 One has to live through a drought like this to know the longing one
18feels for green stuff & fruit. I have felt like another person since I
19gobbled up that basket of strawberries at the railway station the
20first day I was in Cape Town!
21
22 The two women in the train were very nice. They tried to be nasty at
23first, but I so persistently wouldn’t see it, that they ended by
24saying when we parted that it had been "a joy" to travel with me &
25they hoped we would meet again!! & I felt quite sorry to part with
26them.
27
28 My darling, I wish you could get a rest right away somewhere if only
29for a couple of weeks. Won’t you go up with Elberty when he goes up
30to Leurivier Mills? They have had beautiful rains there it isn’t a
31terrible desert like this. I am afraid you hurried down very much ^the
32last day.^ & it will have done you harm.
33
34 Good bye, my dear one. I wonder if life will ever arrange itself so we
35can live somewhere near each other
36 Olive
37
38 ^Love to my dear nephews & pieces. I am so sorry I can see so little of
39them. I feel quite sure Elberty ought to go up to Leeuriever Mills.^
40