Anyone fancy trying to decipher a letter from 1877? Pics attached

[ChocChipOwl]

I can get most of it but not all and you lot are so good at this!

I have ...

Dear Charles Edward,

I was very pleased to receive a letter from you in such a bold handwriting with a drawn figure representing perhaps old ? with his sticks making towards the flagstaff - all this I think well done for your age and recommend you to go on and prosper

You will be pleased to hear that I am better and ? next Monday to be able of the day is fine to get out for a walk and ? you cannot be with me - love to your mother ? ?

Your affectionate grandfather

J Franck

It's a letter from a grandfather to his little grandson praising him for his handwriting and drawing dated 1877. Shame no address! Just 'home 23 feb '77'

Think that last sentence is perhaps “Mother, sister and brother”

@ChickenSandwichandCupofTea of course it is! Was reading 'sixteen' for some reason

Thank you

“+ appear next Monday, if the weather is fine…”

Regret you cannot be with me?

End is regret, mother, sister and brothers. Will have another look at the earlier ones when not on my phone, if soneo e else doesn't get there first.

Expect next Monday to ......

Regret you cannot be with me

Even without an address I can find a Charles Edward Franck actually online on find my past. With a mother, sister and brothers and no male head of house so maybe...

I'm not sure that last word is brother(s). I'll keep looking at it!

‘old trot’ ? dog’s name maybe?
Can’t see what else the first three letters could be but t, r, o. Then the end of the word looks exactly like the end of ‘that’ on the next page.

@Jewelanemone I'm not sure either! Keep looking at it

@NomNomNominativeDeterminism ooh could be couldnt it?

'Old Trot' actually can't be a dog as I don't think a dog would be described as being on sticks walking towards a flagstaff

Hmm

Home
23 Feb '77
Dear Charles Edward
I was very pleased to receive a letter from you in such a bold hand writing with a drawn figure representing perhaps old trof (?) with his stick making towards the flag staff - all this I think well done for your age & recommend you to go on & prosper. You will be pleased to hear that I am better & expect next Monday to be able, if the day is fine, to get out for a walk & regret you cannot be with me. Love to your mother, sister & Brothers.
Your affectionate
Grandfather
J Franck

old trof (?) presumably either someone they know or perhaps a well known figure at the time in a book or military figure.

How lovely to have the letter! Is it your family?

Home, 23 Feb ‘77
Dear Charles Edward,
I was very pleased to receive a letter from you in such a bold handwriting with a drawn figure representing perhaps old trot (?) with his stick making towards the flagstaff - all this I think well done for your age & recommend you to go on and prosper.
You will be pleased to hear that I am better and expect next Monday to be able, if the day is fine, to get out for a walk & regret you cannot be with me - Love to your mother, sister & brother,
Your affectionate grandfather
J Franck

Thanks so much all!

@AnotherSpare not my family sadly! I have a little hobby where I source little letters and postcards from Georgian / Victorian times and then I find out bits and pieces about them/ the area/ life back then. Social history stuff really!

@Lambethmum yep I think that's about it!

Thanks again. It's just the mystery of who old trot (?) is and why he'd be on sticks going towards a flagstaff!

I think it is probably a book character too - google brings up old trot and her comical cat etc

@ChocChipOwl How wonderful! I have a similar hobby I find it so interesting to find out about people's lives in this way.
When I was young (in the 1970s!) I used to write to my grandparents in this way and they wrote back - just little notes in the post talking about day to day things. That's lost in these days of social media.

@Lambethmum amazing - I'll look into that. Thank you

‘with his stick’ not necessarily meaning ‘on sticks’? So could be in his hand or mouth, if he is a person or an animal

@AnotherSpare all lost now isn't it! I can remember the letters I wrote to friends in the 70s - so wish I'd kept them tbh!

And yes it's a nice little absorbing hobby that is cheap and interesting.

Few quid on old postcards or letters and a subscription to an ancestry type thing and well, that's it!

This could be your Old Trot
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Thomas

Died in 1870, famous in the battle world. I could imagine a young boy in 1877 having a book of battle heroes and toy soldiers to recreate with.

It's stick singular so I agree with pp that it would be a animal, rather than a person. Quite possibly the boy's pet dog or the grandfather's pet dog rather than a fictional character.

FWIW, I'm not convinced it says brothers, but I can't work out what other name it is!

I think it's signed off by a J rather than L.

To be honest I think it probably is 'brothers', maybe it looks odd because it's a bit crammed in. Odd that it's capitalised, though, which is what made me think it might be a name.