ABSTRACT
Family woes, financial unease and ill health cast deepening shadows over the last decade of Colebrooke’s life and forced him to curtail and eventually cancel his participation in the societies and clubs he had frequented. Excruciating backaches progressively rendered him housebound, and cataracts deprived him of the ability to conduct scholarly research. But his mind remained active, and he followed closely the rise of European Indology. Made an honorary member of foreign academies, he declined a knighthood.
