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Letter ReferenceSchreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/8
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date3 November 1883
Address FromRose Cottage, Bexhill, East Sussex
Address To
Who ToAlice Hemming nee Schreiner
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 is damaged and the end of the letter is missing.
1 Rose Cottage
2 Bexhill-on-Sea
3 Sussex
4 Oct ^Nov^ 3 / 83
5
6 My dear Alice
7
8 Many thanks for your letter. I am very sorry to hear your health
9remains so bad. As soon as Robert & you can in anyway manage it I
10think your ought to try a change to [pagetorn] Eastern Prov [pagetorn]
11a few weeks [pagetorn] the railways [pagetorn] is not qu [pagetorn]
12difficult matter as it used to be at our old Cape.
13
14 If Wynne cannot walk much don’t you think you ought to try & let her
15get more horse exercise regularly. If she is growing so fast she needs
16something to strengthen her. I am glad & yet sorry to hear the last
17bit [pagetorn] you give me. [pagetorn] you are hardly [pagetorn]
18enough to hear [pagetorn] to your [pagetorn], but [pagetorn] be a
19welcoming greeting sent to the little stranger from over the water
20when it arrives.
21
22 About my book, dear, I did not send you a copy because my horrid old
23publisher made me pay the full price for each copy that I had, & I did
24not like to send to one without sending to all lest they should be
25pained, & I couldn’t send to all. To Mama & Will & a friend at the
26diamond Fields I had promised copies so I had to send them. Now the
27first edition at a guinea is sold out, & there is a cheap 6/- edition
28& I am going to get copies for you all.
29
30 I am now camped for the winter at Bexhill. I live in a little solitary
31cottage near the sea. This is a country place six miles from the
32nearest town, & as I don’t know a soul here my life will be very quiet.
33 There is only myself & the old servant in the house I have hired a
34little bedroom & sitting room & she cooks for me. I mean to do a great
35deal of work this winter if only my chest will let me.
36
37 I had a delightful little visit to Desborough, Mrs Walters had read my
38book & liked it so much that she wrote & invited me to visit them. Her
39husband is a large mine owner. They are so good & kind to me. Then I
40had a pleasant little time in London, every one was so good to me. So
41I mustn’t grumble at the dreary winter, must I. It is dreary to me
42because my chest keeps me indoors. I get a great many kind
43
44[page/s missing]
45
Notation
The reference to ‘my book’ is to Ralph Iron (Olive Schreiner) (1883) The Story of an African Farm London: Chapman & Hall, two volumes. The cheap edition mentioned was published in one volume.