I thought that maybe we could have a look at it together here.
The thread on TORC is here: Pictorial Code Letter
When I was attending the Birmingham Tolkien gathering this summer I bought a postcard reproduction of a "pictorial code letter" that Tolkien wrote in the summer of 1904 (i.e. at 12 years of age!) to Father Francis.
At that time, Tolkien's mother went through the remission phase of diabetes and the family was spending the summer in a cottage in Rednal in Worcershire, just outside Birmingham.
Unfortunately, the reproduction on the postcard seems to end in the middle of the letter, and I was unable to find a pic of the whole thing anywhere. It's not even mentioned in the "Artist & Illustrator" book.
The postcard informs us that the letter is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, MS. Tolkien drawings 86, fol. 1 verso - just in case someone gets a chance to go there and could have a look at the rest of the letter!
Here is the letter:
This is the text of the letter as far as we've figured it out on TORC:
... (here ends the reproduction of the letter on the postcard)Woodside
Cottage, Rednal
My dear wise owl/ole (?) Father Francis
You are to be _ _ _
not to_ _ _ _ _ _me in
spite of Father Dennis
I am so sorry you
did not like the _ _
word "piano" in my
last letter so I
I'd really love to fill the gaps, so if any of you could help, that would be great!
If you read the TORC-thread, you'll see that there is another pictorial code letter, which is printed in a book called "The Tolkien Family Album".
Roccondil posted a link to a picture of this letter and we started transscribing this one, too, but didn't get to finish it either.
Of course I'd love to decipher the rest of this letter, too, but I'd prefer not to do this without Roccondil's knowledge and ok. I hope to post about this on TORC, because I don't have a contact addy for him!