I agree with you both (all)! Especially re: the "p".
Formidable.
Seems a bit of an odd choice of word, but that wouldn't be the first time...
What threw me at first is that it looked too "formed" to be an "f". He starts a lower-case "f" from the top, and in this example it looks, at first glance, as if it has been started from the left side in the centre. That bit is, however, the centre stroke.
The "f" in "friends" on the next line is very similar.
What caught me out big-time with this one is that - assuming it is formidable - the stroke to the "r" comes from under the "o". Then I thought about a theory which was suggested in one of Deskman's threads (I can't remember who by - sorry!) which raised the possibility of the writer being left-handed. Yes, that was sometimes still frowned upon back then, but who knows?
As a "leftie", my "o" is sometimes joined to the preceding letter in a similar way...
I had to have a little chuckle when I first read this text. (I must admit to "having a go" in my head, before looking at the suggestions/corrections, regardless of how much has been clarified in my absence - great fun!
) The chuckle was due to "village" (friends in the village). If somebody had never seen any examples of his
interesting handwriting, they could be forgiven for thinking that the word was "deluge"..!
Happy Sunday,
Karen