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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box2/Fold3/1900/57
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date10 October 1900
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToBetty Molteno
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. The name of the addressee is indicated by salutation and content.
1 Hanover
2 Oct 10 / 00
3
4 Dear Friends
5
6 So glad you are coming. Mrs de Villers who has invited you is a
7charming old lady.
8
9 I’m so glad Miss Greene is better. I only wish you could have been
10here while the trees were in blossom, & we had those lovely frosty
11nights. It is warmer now. Wire or write to let me know when you come.
12
13 We went again this afternoon to see our three little brown baby birds
14in their nest on the ground among the stones, under a koppje about two
15miles from here. I am afraid they will be grown up by the time you
16come they are growing so fast.
17
18 I wonder if you will like Hanover at all as I do. You see I was so
19terribly ill before I came here that every thing seems beautiful to me
20here!
21
22 Steytler spoke out well. The people are all right. Politicians are
23politicians all the world over: but Sauer & Merriman & your brother
24Jim have stood splendidly.
25
26 Its so lovely to think you are coming. I really can hardly believe it.
27Of course one has to be very careful never to talk politics here. At
28any moment martial law may be proclaimed & all the people thrown into
29prison & ruined. Therefore it was a comfort to me to write that
30article for the Somerset Women. I am feeling quite prostrate since I
31wrote it. It is so strange how little prostrates one when one is not
32strong. I suppose it is my heart, & one cannot write with out letting
33one self go & I am always holding myself in because I know I must, if
34I am to live.
35
36 Tomorrow a farmer is sending his cart for us & we are going out his
37farm for a day’s fishing in the sea-cow River. The next day we are
38driving out to the farm of Mr ?Centheur’s sister Mrs Van der Merwe,
39so the two days in the open will probably fit me for work again. Dear,
40dear, dear little Hanover. The only place I love in this way is
41Alassio in Italy. In such places one feels it is happy to live; but it
42is also happy to die.
43
44 Good night. I believe Miss Greene will get quite well here, but I wish
45she could have had the lovely cold weather of the last week. Frost
46almost every night, & bright hot sun in the day: now they expect it to
47get warmer.
48
49 I’m so glad you sent for Dr Molteno. I have no faith in Miss
50Waterston as a doctor. A doctor must have a strong reason. Thank you
51for that cheque my darling friends, but I am getting along ?swingingly
52& don’t need it, I tore it up.
53
54 Olive
55
56
57
Notation
Regarding her 'article for the Somerset women' comment, Schreiner sent written addresses to some of the Volkskongresses and peace congresses and she spoke at others, as follows: Graaff-Reinet Volkskongres, April 1900 (spoke); Cape Town women's meeting, June 1900 (spoke); Somerset East peace congress, October 1900 (a letter of address); Paarl, November 1900 peace congress (a letter of address); Worcester Volkskongres, December 1900 (spoke).