Waste of a penny stamp?

[Cember]

I often see on here people wishing they had old family letters.
While in some cases there is useful information,like family names events or addresses, in other cases I wonder why they even wrote the letter.

For example in this letter from 1885 I see it's from an unknown cousin,but apart from that I'm still thinking this letter could have been written in about 6 lines.
The first picture is pages 1 and 4 ...letter starts on the right side and finishes on the left .
Picture two is pages 2 and 3.
A load of woffle or not ? 

[Iban Kepala]

Definitely not Waffle !!.
A wonderful example of the lost art of Letter Writing - In my earlier days I used to enjoy reading such letters which would give me the fullest details of everything that was going on at home. During the war those of us overseas used to get a mimeographed letter/a micro record for easy transportation then blown up again for the reader at the receiving end. There were also restrictions introduced which cut down the longer letters and of course nowadays with all the so called texting and abbreviations the chances of this type of letter coming back into fashion are very remote indeed. I occasionally get such items which I have to ask a younger person to translate for me so much so that I have told and shown the younger members of the family what a proper letter looks like only to be told 'That's old hat'!
As a former school-master I find that very sad indeed , heyho.
Cheers,
George.

[louisemccrea]

Hi

I think this is a lovely wee letter.  Nowadays we spend a lot of time on the phone or email telling our friends and family what we have been up too who said what just general chit chat that may not be of much importance but just as equally interesting and very pleasant.  I see this letter as the same thing and it probably brought a smile to person who recieved the letter.   I'm 31 and my life has been through communication over the phone if i have not seen the person for a while but me and a few of my friends do write each other letters as it is nice to recieve and always cheers me up they are also nice to keep and read back i think more people should write letters as it is a lot more personal and good to know someone has taken the time to do it.

Louise

[Cember]

I think this is a lovely wee letter.  Nowadays we spend a lot of time on the phone or email telling our friends and family what we have been up too ...me and a few of my friends do write each other letters as it is nice to receive and always cheers me up they are also nice to keep and read back i think more people should write letters as it is a lot more personal and good to know someone has taken the time to do it.

Louise

I actually agree, I have a couple of elderly contacts and both of them have said how much they like to receive a letter rather than a phone call. E-mail may be quicker for passing info but in years to come there may well be no record of any of the e-mails and they also don't show handwriting. I'm very grateful  my ancesters were prolific letter writers.Most of the letters are mundane with the occasional argument over money.Thankfully a lot of them have survived.
One that made me laugh concerned  two pages of berating the recipient over money,threatening the police and court proceedings. then the last two lines were "   the weather has been terrible lately , doesn't it make one depressed ...kind regards .."

As you may have guessed if you spotted the smileys, the original post was slightly "toungue in cheek"
Kind regards
John

[Siamese Girl]

It's a lovely letter - you can just imagine all the women sitting down of an evening with their work - a little mending, some knitting - it's a gentle little slice of real life.

A bit later in time but it reminds me of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford

Carole

[Cember]

What supprised me was how often the women would go off visiting relatives in other parts of the country, a week here,  six weeks there,a couple of months somewhere else.
But then the father worked for the Inland Revenue so I suppose he was relatively well paid.
 

[clottedcream]

That is such a sweet letter and I was delighted to see that the writer had also written in the margins and across the top of the page. My mother had a friend who used to do that making the most of every inch of paper.  Our elder daughter-in-law writes a lovely letter - just as if she is sitting there talking to us. It is definitely a dying art though.

[Cember]

Just for you clottedcream 
One written around 1871 mainly discussing travel arrangements, I think, I'm still trying to read some parts.
The writing goes vertically as well as horizontally on page 4
As before starts on right hand side and finishes on left side of first pic,
second pic is pages 2 and 3

[clottedcream]

Thank you for that, Cember. That really is a lovely piece of history.