11 - Sanskrit Literary Treasures (1787–1788)

Summary

The couple reached Krishnagar about 4 August. Intending to remain two months, Jones enjoyed his stay so much that he extended it. One joy was their cottage, which he purchased, together with acres of meadow and gardens:

How preferable is this pastoral mansion, (though built entirely of vegetable substances; without glass, mortar, metal, or any mineral but iron nails from its roof to its foundation) to the marble palaces, which you have seen in Italy! It is a thatched cottage with an upper story, and a covered verone, or veranda, as they call it here, all round it, well-boarded and ten or twelve feet broad; it stands on a dry plain, where many a garden flower grows wild.

(2:743)

He began his annual correspondence. His duties consumed the other nine months, when, though rising before sunrise, he had no time for writing letters, not even on Sunday, which Anna used for that purpose. Pritchard had once assisted, but he was wasting away from consumption. At Krishnagar, Jones decided to write Spencer one page a morning, a goal that he pursued into September. Anna's generally good health sometimes permitted her to copy his page, increasing the chance that one of the two pages would reach England, but he had no time to make copies of his fifty necessary letters.