"Would put up two monuments, Doornkop & Slachter's Nek, pacifism" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box3/Fold1/1902/8 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 4 April 1902 |
| Address From | Hanover, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Betty Molteno |
| 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 name of the addressee is indicated by salutation and content.
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1
Hanover
2 April 4 / 02
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 I got this morning your letter. I hope you & Miss Greene are both
7keeping pretty well: it must be very nice at that little hotel so away
8& quiet & yet so near to every thing but it may be too damp for you in
9the winter.
10
11 Cron is not coming down as he cannot get a pass, & I am sure you could
12not get one to come up, & our winter is very terrible. For ten days
13now we have already had cold & mist & sleet mist, with very little
14rain, but very damp, & so it goes on all the winter here. It is like
15the climate in Scotland. My feet & legs are much swollen so I can
16hardly walk about in the house & can’t get out, & I have to sit up
17for all night for breath. I often feel so I would like to live to see
18peace, but then again one has such a deep longing for rest; for the
19condition in which one will never have to try to breathe any more. I
20have naturally such a passionate clinging to life & such intense
21enjoy-ment of it with all its sorrow & pain. I never thought one could
22come to feel like this. It is only for the sake of finishing some of
23my writing that I wish to live at all.
24
25 Peace may yet come soon but I fancy it will not be for years, many of
26us will not live to see it. Is Miss Greene quite better now? I wish
27for her healths sake apart from anything else she could have seen her
28way clear to going to England. You know I think when the real winter
29comes you would have fo will find Muizenberg rather a good place,
30houses are very cheap in the winter & its dryer than Kenilworth or
31Cape Town for one who can stand the sea.
32
33 I wonder how my mother will stand the winter? She is you know living
34up with Mrs Lewis at the Highlands, in the Gardens. Rhode’s death
35seems to me in a way almost more tragic than even Barney Barnato’s
36or Wolf Joel’s. What a strange story that of the South African
37millionaires would make. Do people think in Cape Town the Princess
38will escape. It is all very mysterious to us up here who know nothing.
39For Rhodes it was a very happy thing he died when he did.
40
41 Good bye. Tell Miss Greene how glad I was to get her letter
42 Olive
43
44 ^I long to see you both so much with such a curious longing. I am
45always thinking of all my old friends now.^
46
47
48
2 April 4 / 02
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 I got this morning your letter. I hope you & Miss Greene are both
7keeping pretty well: it must be very nice at that little hotel so away
8& quiet & yet so near to every thing but it may be too damp for you in
9the winter.
10
11 Cron is not coming down as he cannot get a pass, & I am sure you could
12not get one to come up, & our winter is very terrible. For ten days
13now we have already had cold & mist & sleet mist, with very little
14rain, but very damp, & so it goes on all the winter here. It is like
15the climate in Scotland. My feet & legs are much swollen so I can
16hardly walk about in the house & can’t get out, & I have to sit up
17for all night for breath. I often feel so I would like to live to see
18peace, but then again one has such a deep longing for rest; for the
19condition in which one will never have to try to breathe any more. I
20have naturally such a passionate clinging to life & such intense
21enjoy-ment of it with all its sorrow & pain. I never thought one could
22come to feel like this. It is only for the sake of finishing some of
23my writing that I wish to live at all.
24
25 Peace may yet come soon but I fancy it will not be for years, many of
26us will not live to see it. Is Miss Greene quite better now? I wish
27for her healths sake apart from anything else she could have seen her
28way clear to going to England. You know I think when the real winter
29comes you would have fo will find Muizenberg rather a good place,
30houses are very cheap in the winter & its dryer than Kenilworth or
31Cape Town for one who can stand the sea.
32
33 I wonder how my mother will stand the winter? She is you know living
34up with Mrs Lewis at the Highlands, in the Gardens. Rhode’s death
35seems to me in a way almost more tragic than even Barney Barnato’s
36or Wolf Joel’s. What a strange story that of the South African
37millionaires would make. Do people think in Cape Town the Princess
38will escape. It is all very mysterious to us up here who know nothing.
39For Rhodes it was a very happy thing he died when he did.
40
41 Good bye. Tell Miss Greene how glad I was to get her letter
42 Olive
43
44 ^I long to see you both so much with such a curious longing. I am
45always thinking of all my old friends now.^
46
47
48