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Letter bound to have shown sympathy (6)

Ross
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'shown sympathy' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how they can define each other.

'letter bound' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'letter' could be 'pe' (pe is a kind of letter of the alphabet) and 'pe' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hood' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'to have' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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