out old privileges granted to the Syriac Church. How Macaulay rescued these plates remains a mystery, but he presented them to the Syriac Church and also had replicas made, one set of which is now in the Cambridge University Library. Bible Translation into Malayalam He worked with the Rev. Claudius Buchanan to secure agreement from the Rajah of Travancore, as well as senior local clerics, to create the first translation of the Bible into Malayalam. Buchanan also appointed Macaulay to supervise the actual bible translation work, and well as choose the title of his subsequently best-selling book - which was an account of Buchanan's travels in the south and west of India; Christian Researches in Asia (Cambridge, 1811). Upon publication the book became an immediate bestseller, being republished twelve times over the next two years. Codex Zacynthius In 1820 he visited the island of Zante in Greece on behalf of the (then) British and Foreign Bible Society. Whilst there he met Prince Comuto, who had been President of the Septinsular Republic. Comuto's Palace was famous for its library and its works of art. The library contained the Codex Zacynthius which Comuto presented to Macaulay, personally inscribed, as a mark of his esteem. On his return to England Macaulay gave it to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Today the Codex Zacynthius is recognised as one of the most important palimpsests of its kind. It was sold by the Bible Society to the Cambridge University Library in 2014 for £1.1 million. Return to England For the first ten years of his return to England, Macaulay's London base was 17 Downing Street. It was loaned by the owner, his brother-in-law, the M.P. and abolitionist Thomas Babington. The arrangement lasted until 1820, when the men had a falling out for an unrecorded reason. In 1812 Macaulay purchased a 247-acre farm near Lowesby, in Leicestershire. As it was let out, from the year of purchase until Macaulay's death, it was presumably just an investment. Macaulay also felt the cold badly and as a result often spent the winter months in France, Italy and the Mediterranean. He also stayed at various health resorts in England, including Cheltenham and Harrogate. He never appears to have bought or leased a residence for himself in England; it seems therefore that his joking remark that his travelling carriage was his only freehold should be taken literally. Public life Macaulay