Help Please To Read My Rebus Letter

A barrel can be used as a water butt, hence "...but writing letters..."
Dentists use drills and the discs could be coins - pieces of eight, hence "...by bits and pieces..."
Then deuce, ed and a roughly drawn 'on' gives "...deuced rough on a..."

Which gives, "..."but writing letters by bits and pieces is deuced rough on a...."

on a what? Words that would make sense if they fit are fellow, chap, guy, man, boy, person....any suggestions?

Terry

shop signs and cymbals? (not a pulley) - so "writing letters by signs and symbols" i.e. rebuses

Jim

Nice.That's it! So what is that round thing?

Terry

Could that round thing be a pie?

Peter

Jim , I believe you are correct. Now we need to figure out what the pie is , the quivering "on" , and the 2 of diamonds that ends in "ated"(8d).

I don't think it is a pie, I think it might be a pencil viewed end on.

Terry

You guys are good

Barely write letters by signs and symbols



Only one bit left. The flow of the letter is: "You call upon me for a picture letter, barely write letters by signs and symbols is ...... as he cannot draw everything"

Jenny,

"Barely" from barrel is tenuous and "write" doesn't have a logical flow, I am sure the sign is of a "butt writing". "Butt", is another name for a barrel. This makes more sense as "...but writing letters by signs and symbols is deuced rough on a ? , as he can't draw everything.....". Which leaves that last round symbol, and whatever it represents has to make sense with the rest of the sentence. So pie and doily won't work. Fiendish stuff.

Terry

Thinking about it, whatever the round symbol represents it must relate to "he" which is the subject of the preceding phrase:
"...is deuced rough on a ( ? ), as ( he ) can't draw everything.....".

Terry

Terry you're quite right! But writing letters makes more sense. I'm not sold on the "deuced" though ... I just looked it up and deuced is described thusly:

Used for emphasis, especially to express disapproval or frustration. "I know it's deuced awkward for you"

Since deuced is an adjective, can this fit what follows?

Yes, it does. Whatever word the last symbol represents it will be a noun or pronoun related to "he" in the next phrase. It is this logical flow that needs to be kept in mind when cracking these things. For example only:

...but writing letters by signs and symbols is deuced rough on a ( fellow ), as ( he ) can't draw everything.....

So I think the missing word must relate to the writer of the letter in some way, most likely a pronoun of some sort. Just got to find one that fits the symbol, whatever that is. Definitely not pie or doily though.

Terry

Not pencil either.

Terry

Hi Jenny,

These are snaps of the WWll Bletchley Park codebreakers taken when they did "The Marriage of Figaro" at the house in 1943. They would have had no bother cracking this .

Terry

Terry you're on a great roll, that last symbol is tough.

Isn't it just. Got me beat so far.

Terry