Aelfwine wrote:

[finger] in English did not, ...
in use require a letter for z; and they did
not use z in their own language, except
occasionally for ts (as mod. German)
Various [etc. as above]

Excellent, thanks! Except I do not think the word before “English” is “in”. In a couple of frames after this photo (see attached screenshots) his thumb lifts and reveals the rest of the word (it looks like only one) beneath, in a hopeless blur. I’ve circled the blur of ink corresponding to the word in question in the photos below. It can be seen right above the word “require”. The word looks too long to be “in”. Perhaps “whereas” (with cursive final -s) would fit better. Then again, in the second image the first letter of the word looks like it has a descender, and the line looks to be indented.

In any case, I think a “?” is in order for the reading of this word.

I didn't see this mentioned but the Christmas special had the gentleman who owned the letter on again and he was invited to the Bodleian Library to view his own letter that he sent to Tolkien.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/ ... oadshow-christmas-special

It was mentioned here https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... t_id=36829#forumpost36829

Trotter wrote:

It was mentioned here https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... t_id=36829#forumpost36829

Thanks Trotter, totally missed that thread, and the Christmas epsiode it seems.