16 Letters of Sir Writ1am Jones to Saver Davis, Esq. 
XVII. 
Calcutta: 19 April 1790 
My dear Sir, 
That I may not miss to-night’s post, I write from the bench, in the 
middle of a very difficult cause, a short answer to your acceptable and 
interesting letter of the 16". Brittridge has long been employed, or pre- 
tending to be employed, in engraving your drawing of the Roman coins 
found at Nelore, and one or two other drawings; but I kept your astro- 
nomical figures, that they might be finished (if possible) under your own 
eye. For fear of accident I do not annex them ; but if you have no copy 
I will send them on the first intimation. They are absolutely necessary for 
the illustration of your important paper: the ruins of Mavalipuram would 
make an elegant frontispiece, with a reference to Chambers’s paper in 
Vol. I.; but such a decoration is not essentially necessary. Your Hindu 
ecliptic would also greatly illustrate your paper; but if our friend Mr, 
Daniell (to whom my best compl" and thanks) had leisure to undertake it, 
you might rely on my care here in superintending the plate. Alefounder 
is etching Sanscrit for me, but he is a tyro in that branch of art. You 
have irradiated my mind on the subject of the Hindu Zodiac: no doubt 
by the reckoning ofthe Hindus the 1st degree of Mésha should be 19.° 21’. 
nearly from the vernal eq: On a hasty computation from the Spike or chitra 
6° 40/ I should make it 19° 31/ 21’, but a precession of 19° 21’ would give 
us 1290 years, in which period the precession, at 50” annually, would be, 
17° 55’ 0’. Perhaps M./e Gentil is right in saying that the Hindus com- 
pute from two points of their Ecliptic, one of which is y of the Ram. In 
no other way can I bring within compass the stars which appear delineated, 
though rudely, in the Indian drawing engraved by Shepherd. Adieu, my 
dear Sir. I must attend to a witness, and leave you for a time. At ali 
times I shall ever be 
Yours faithfully 
W. JONES. 
XVIII. 
Calcutta: 27 Oct. 1790 
The packet of the Foulis, my dear Sir, is just arrived, and I have not 
read half my letters; but as one of them (from Mr. Shore) encloses a 
