Baker, whilst large-minded in great matters, was extremely conventional in small ones, and Yule must sometimes have tried his feelings in this respect. The particulars of one such tragic occurrence have survived. Yule, who was colour-blind,[46] and in early life whimsically obstinate in maintaining his own view of colours, had selected some cloth for trousers undeterred by his tailor's timid remonstrance of "Not quite your usual taste, sir." The result was that the Under-Secretary to Government startled official Calcutta by appearing in brilliant claret-coloured raiment. Baker remonstrated: "Claret-colour! Nonsense, my trousers are silver grey," said Yule, and entirely declined to be convinced. "I think I did convince him at last," said Baker with some pride, when long after telling the story to the present writer. "And then he gave them up?" "Oh, no," said Sir William ruefully, "he wore those claret-coloured trousers to the very end." That episode probably belonged to the Dalhousie period.

When Yule resumed work in the Secretariat at Calcutta at the close of the Mutiny, the inevitable arrears of work were enormous. This may be the proper place to notice more fully his action with respect to the choice of gauge for Indian railways already adverted to in brief. As we have seen, his own convictions led to the adoption of the metre gauge over a great part of India. This policy had great disadvantages not at first foreseen, and has since been greatly modified. In justice to Yule, however, it should be remembered that the conditions and requirements of India have largely altered, alike through the extraordinary growth of the Indian export, especially the grain, trade, and the development of new necessities for Imperial defence. These new features, however, did but accentuate defects inherent in the system, but which only prolonged practical experience made fully apparent.

At the outset the supporters of the narrow gauge seemed to have the stronger position, as they were able to show that the cost was much less, the rails employed being only about 2/3rds the weight of those required by the broad gauge, and many other subsidiary expenses also proportionally less. On the other hand, as time passed and practical experience was gained, its opponents were able to make an even stronger case against the narrow gauge. The initial expenses were undoubtedly less, but the durability was also less. Thus much of the original saving was lost in the greater cost of maintenance, whilst the small carrying capacity of the rolling stock and loss of time and labour in shifting goods at every break of gauge, were further serious causes of waste, which the internal commercial development of India daily made more apparent. Strategic needs also were clamant against the dangers of the narrow gauge in any general scheme of Indian defence. Yule's connection with the Public Works Department had long ceased ere the question of the gauges reached its most acute stage, but his interest and indirect participation in the conflict survived. In this matter a certain parental tenderness for a scheme which he had helped to originate, combined with his warm friendship for some of the principal supporters of the narrow gauge, seem to have influenced his views more than he himself was aware. Certainly his judgment in this matter was not impartial, although, as always in his case, it was absolutely sincere and not consciously biased.

In reference to Yule's services in the period following the Mutiny, Lord Canning's subsequent Minute of 1862 may here be fitly quoted. In this the Governor-General writes: "I have long ago recorded my opinion of the value of his services in 1858 and 1859, when with a crippled and overtaxed staff of Engineer officers, many of them young and inexperienced, the G.-G. had to provide rapidly for the accommodation of a vast English army, often in districts hitherto little known, and in which the authority of the Government was barely established, and always under circumstances of difficulty and urgency. I desire to repeat that the Queen's army in India was then greatly indebted to Lieut.-Colonel Yule's judgment, earnestness, and ability; and this to an extent very imperfectly understood by many of the officers who held commands in that army.

"Of the manner in which the more usual duties of his office have been discharged it is unnecessary for me to speak. It is, I believe, known and appreciated as well by the Home Government as by the Governor-General in Council."

In the spring of 1859 Yule felt the urgent need of a rest, and took the, at that time, most unusual step of coming home on three months' leave, which as the voyage then occupied a month each way, left him only one month at home. He was accompanied by his elder brother George, who had not been out of India for thirty years. The visit home of the two brothers was as bright and pleasant as it was brief, but does not call for further notice.

In 1860, Yule's health having again suffered, he took short leave to Java. His journal of this tour is very interesting, but space does not admit of quotation here. He embodied some of the results of his observations in a lecture he delivered on his return to Calcutta.

During these latter years of his service in India, Yule owed much happiness to the appreciative friendship of Lord Canning and the ready sympathy of Lady Canning. If he shared their tours in an official capacity, the intercourse was much more than official. The noble character of Lady Canning won from Yule such wholehearted chivalrous devotion as, probably, he felt for no other friend save, perhaps in after days, Sir Bartle Frere. And when her health failed, it was to Yule's special care that Lord Canning entrusted his wife during a tour in the Hills. Lady Canning was known to be very homesick, and one day as the party came in sight of some ilexes (the evergreen oak), Yule sought to cheer her by calling out pleasantly: "Look, Lady Canning! There are oaks!" "No, no, Yule, not oaks," cried Sir C. B. "They are (solemnly) IBEXES." "No, not Ibexes, Sir C., you mean SILEXES," cried Capt. ——, the A.D.C.; Lady Canning and Yule the while almost choking with laughter.

On another and later occasion, when the Governor-General's camp was peculiarly dull and stagnant, every one yawning and grumbling, Yule effected a temporary diversion by pretending to tap the telegraph wires, and circulating through camp, what purported to be, the usual telegraphic abstract of news brought to Bombay by the latest English mail. The news was of the most astounding character, with just enough air of probability, in minor details, to pass muster with a dull reader. The effect was all he could wish—or rather more—and there was a general flutter in the camp. Of course the Governor-General and one or two others were in the secret, and mightily relished the diversion. But this pleasant and cheering intercourse was drawing to its mournful close. On her way back from Darjeeling, in November, 1861, Lady Canning (not then in Yule's care) was unavoidably exposed to the malaria of a specially unhealthy season. A few days' illness followed, and on 18th November, 1861, she passed calmly to

"That remaining rest where night and tears are o'er."[47]

It was to Yule that Lord Canning turned in the first anguish of his loss, and on this faithful friend devolved the sad privilege of preparing her last resting-place. This may be told in the touching words of Lord Canning's letter to his only sister, written on the day of Lady Canning's burial, in the private garden at Barrackpoor[48]:—

"The funeral is over, and my own darling lies buried in a spot which I am sure she would have chosen of all others.... From the grave can be seen the embanked walk leading from the house to the river's edge, which she made as a landing-place three years ago, and from within 3 or 4 paces of the grave there is a glimpse of the terrace-garden and its balustrades, which she made near the house, and of the part of the grounds with which she most occupied herself.... I left Calcutta yesterday ... and on arriving here, went to look at the precise spot chosen for the grave. I could see by the clear full moon ... that it was exactly right. Yule was there superintending the workmen, and before daylight this morning a solid masonry vault had been completely finished.

"Bowie [Military Secretary] and Yule have done all this for me. It has all been settled since my poor darling died. She liked Yule. They used to discuss together her projects of improvement for this place, architecture, gardening, the Cawnpore monument, etc., and they generally agreed. He knew her tastes well...."

The coffin, brought on a gun-carriage from Calcutta, "was carried by twelve soldiers of the 6th Regiment (Queen's), the A.D.C.'s bearing the pall. There were no hired men or ordinary funeral attendants of any kind at any part of the ceremony, and no lookers-on.... Yule was the only person not of the household staff. Had others who had asked" to attend "been allowed to do so, the numbers would have been far too large.

"On coming near the end of the terrace walk I saw that the turf between the walk and the grave, and for several yards all round the grave, was strewed thick with palm branches and bright fresh-gathered flowers—quite a thick carpet. It was a little matter, but so exactly what she would have thought of."[49]

And, therefore, Yule thought of this for her! He also recorded the scene two days later in some graceful and touching lines, privately printed, from which the following may be quoted:

"When night lowered black, and the circling shroud Of storm rolled near, and stout hearts learned dismay; Not Hers! To her tried Lord a Light and Stay Even in the Earthquake and the palpable cloud Of those dark months; and when a fickle crowd Panted for blood and pelted wrath and scorn On him she loved, her courage never stooped: But when the clouds were driven, and the day Poured Hope and glorious Sunshine, she who had borne, The night with such strong Heart, withered and drooped, Our queenly lily, and smiling passed away. Now! let no fouling touch profane her clay, Nor odious pomps and funeral tinsels mar Our grief. But from our England's cannon car Let England's soldiers bear her to the tomb Prepared by loving hands. Before her bier Scatter victorious palms; let Rose's bloom Carpet its passage...."

Yule's deep sympathy in this time of sorrow strengthened the friendship Lord Canning had long felt for him, and when the time approached for the Governor-General to vacate his high office, he invited Yule, who was very weary of India, to accompany him home, where his influence would secure Yule congenial employment. Yule's weariness of India at this time was extreme. Moreover, after serving under such leaders as Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning, and winning their full confidence and friendship, it was almost repugnant to him to begin afresh with new men and probably new measures, with which he might not be in accord. Indeed, some little clouds were already visible on the horizon. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that Yule, under an impulse of lassitude and impatience, when accepting Lord Canning's offer, also 'burnt his boats' by sending in his resignation of the service. This decision Yule took against the earnest advice of his anxious and devoted wife, and for a time the results justified all her misgivings. She knew well, from past experience, how soon Yule wearied in the absence of compulsory employment. And in the event of the life in England not suiting him, for even Lord Canning's good-will might not secure perfectly congenial employment for his talents, she knew well that his health and spirits would be seriously affected. She, therefore, with affectionate solicitude, urged that he should adopt the course previously followed by his friend Baker, that is, come home on furlough, and only send in his resignation after he saw clearly what his prospects of home employment were, and what he himself wished in the matter.

Lord Canning and Yule left Calcutta late in March, 1862; at Malta they parted never to meet again in this world. Lord Canning proceeded to England, and Yule joined his wife and child in Rome. Only a few weeks later, at Florence, came as a thunderclap the announcement of Lord Canning's unexpected death in London, on 17th June. Well does the present writer remember the day that fatal news came, and Yule's deep anguish, not assuredly for the loss of his prospects, but for the loss of a most noble and magnanimous friend, a statesman whose true greatness was, both then and since, most imperfectly realised by the country for which he had worn himself out.[50] Shortly after Yule went to England,[51] where he was cordially received by Lord Canning's representatives, who gave him a touching remembrance of his lost friend, in the shape of the silver travelling candlesticks, which had habitually stood on Lord Canning's writing-table.[52] But his offer to write Lord Canning's Life had no result, as the relatives, following the then recent example of the Hastings family, in the case of another great Governor-General, refused to revive discussion by the publication of any Memoir.

Nor did Yule find any suitable opening for employment in England, so after two or three months spent in visiting old friends, he rejoined his family in the Black Forest, where he sought occupation in renewing his knowledge of German. But it must be confessed that his mood both then and for long after was neither happy nor wholesome. The winter of 1862 was spent somewhat listlessly, partly in Germany and partly at the Hotel des Bergues, Geneva, where his old acquaintance Colonel Tronchin was hospitably ready to open all doors. The picturesque figure of John Ruskin also flits across the scene at this time. But Yule was unoccupied and restless, and could neither enjoy Mr. Ruskin's criticism of his sketches nor the kindly hospitality of his Genevan hosts. Early in 1863 he made another fruitless visit to London, where he remained four or five months, but found no opening. Though unproductive of work, this year brought Yule official recognition of his services in the shape of the C.B., for which Lord Canning had long before recommended him.[53]

On rejoining his wife and child at Mornex in Savoy, Yule found the health of the former seriously impaired. During his absence, the kind and able English Doctor at Geneva had felt obliged to inform Mrs. Yule that she was suffering from disease of the heart, and that her life might end suddenly at any moment. Unwilling to add to Yule's anxieties, she made all necessary arrangements, but did not communicate this intelligence until he had done all he wished and returned, when she broke it to him very gently. Up to this year Mrs. Yule, though not strong and often ailing, had not allowed herself to be considered an invalid, but from this date doctor's orders left her no choice in the matter.[54]

About this time, Yule took in hand the first of his studies of mediaeval travellers. His translation of the Travels of Friar Jordanus was probably commenced earlier; it was completed during the leisurely journey by carriage between Chambery and Turin, and the Dedication to Sir Bartle Frere written during a brief halt at Genoa, from which place it is dated. Travelling slowly and pleasantly by vetturino along the Riviera di Levante, the family came to Spezzia, then little more than a quiet village. A chance encounter with agreeable residents disposed Yule favourably towards the place, and a few days later he opened negotiations for land to build a house! Most fortunately for himself and all concerned these fell through, and the family continued their journey to Tuscany, and settled for the winter in a long rambling house, with pleasant garden, at Pisa, where Yule was able to continue with advantage his researches into mediaeval travel in the East. He paid frequent visits to Florence, where he had many pleasant acquaintances, not least among them Charles Lever ("Harry Lorrequer"), with whom acquaintance ripened into warm and enduring friendship. At Florence he also made the acquaintance of the celebrated Marchese Gino Capponi, and of many other Italian men of letters. To this winter of 1863-64 belongs also the commencement of a lasting friendship with the illustrious Italian historian, Villari, at that time holding an appointment at Pisa. Another agreeable acquaintance, though less intimate, was formed with John Ball, the well-known President of the Alpine Club, then resident at Pisa, and with many others, among whom the name of a very cultivated German scholar, H. Meyer, specially recurs to memory.

In the spring of 1864, Yule took a spacious and delightful old villa, situated in the highest part of the Bagni di Lucca,[55] and commanding lovely views over the surrounding chestnut-clad hills and winding river.

Here he wrote much of what ultimately took form in Cathay, and the Way Thither. It was this summer, too, that Yule commenced his investigations among the Venetian archives, and also visited the province of Friuli in pursuit of materials for the history of one of his old travellers, the Beato Odorico. At Verona—then still Austrian—he had the amusing experience of being arrested for sketching too near the fortifications. However, his captors had all the usual Austrian bonhomie and courtesy, and Yule experienced no real inconvenience. He was much more disturbed when, a day or two later, the old mother of one of his Venetian acquaintances insisted on embracing him on account of his supposed likeness to Garibaldi!

As winter approached, a warmer climate became necessary for Mrs. Yule, and the family proceeded to Sicily, landing at Messina in October, 1864. From this point, Yule made a very interesting excursion to the then little known group of the Lipari Islands, in the company of that eminent geologist, the late Robert Mallet, F.R.S., a most agreeable companion.

On Martinmas Day, the Yules reached the beautiful capital of Sicily, Palermo, which, though they knew it not, was to be their home—a very happy one—for nearly eleven years.

During the ensuing winter and spring, Yule continued the preparation of Cathay, but his appetite for work not being satisfied by this, he, when in London in 1865, volunteered to make an Index to the third decade of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, in exchange for a set of such volumes as he did not possess. That was long before any Index Society existed; but Yule had special and very strong views of his own as to what an Index should be, and he spared no labour to realise his ideal.[56] This proved a heavier task than he had anticipated, and he got very weary before the Index was completed.

In the spring of 1866, Cathay and the Way Thither appeared, and at once took the high place which it has ever since retained. In the autumn of the same year Yule's attention was momentarily turned in a very different direction by a local insurrection, followed by severe reprisals, and the bombardment of Palermo by the Italian Fleet. His sick wife was for some time under rifle as well as shell fire; but cheerfully remarking that "every bullet has its billet," she remained perfectly serene and undisturbed. It was the year of the last war with Austria, and also of the suppression of the Monastic Orders in Sicily; two events which probably helped to produce the outbreak, of which Yule contributed an account to The Times, and subsequently a more detailed one to the Quarterly Review.[57]

Yule had no more predilection for the Monastic Orders than most of his countrymen, but his sense of justice was shocked by the cruel incidence of the measure in many cases, and also by the harshness with which both it and the punishment of suspected insurgents was carried out. Cholera was prevalent in Italy that year, but Sicily, which had maintained stringent quarantine, entirely escaped until large bodies of troops were landed to quell the insurrection, when a devastating epidemic immediately ensued, and re-appeared in 1867. In after years, when serving on the Army Sanitary Committee at the India Office, Yule more than once quoted this experience as indicating that quarantine restrictions may, in some cases, have more value than British medical authority is usually willing to admit.

In 1867, on his return from London, Yule commenced systematic work on his long projected new edition of the Travels of Marco Polo. It was apparently in this year that the scheme first took definite form, but it had long been latent in his mind. The Public Libraries of Palermo afforded him much good material, whilst occasional visits to the Libraries of Venice, Florence, Paris, and London, opened other sources. But his most important channel of supply came from his very extensive private correspondence, extending to nearly all parts of Europe and many centres in Asia. His work brought him many new and valued friends, indeed too many to mention, but amongst whom, as belonging specially to this period, three honoured names must be recalled here: Commendatore (afterwards Baron) CRISTOFORO NEGRI, the large-hearted Founder and First President of the Geographical Society of Italy, from whom Yule received his first public recognition as a geographer, Commendatore GUGLIELMO BERCHET (affectionately nicknamed il Bello e Buono), ever generous in learned help, who became a most dear and honoured friend, and the Hon. GEORGE P. MARSH, U.S. Envoy to the Court of Italy, a man, both as scholar and friend, unequalled in his nation, perhaps almost unique anywhere.

Those who only knew Yule in later years, may like some account of his daily life at this time. It was his custom to rise fairly early; in summer he sometimes went to bathe in the sea,[58] or for a walk before breakfast; more usually he would write until breakfast, which he preferred to have alone. After breakfast he looked through his notebooks, and before ten o'clock was usually walking rapidly to the library where his work lay. He would work there until two or three o'clock, when he returned home, read the Times, answered letters, received or paid visits, and then resumed work on his book, which he often continued long after the rest of the household were sleeping. Of course his family saw but little of him under these circumstances, but when he had got a chapter of Marco into shape, or struck out some new discovery of interest, he would carry it to his wife to read. She always took great interest in his work, and he had great faith in her literary instinct as a sound as well as sympathetic critic.

The first fruits of Yule's Polo studies took the form of a review of Pauthier's edition of Marco Polo, contributed to the Quarterly Review in 1868.

In 1870 the great work itself appeared, and received prompt generous recognition by the grant of the very beautiful gold medal of the Geographical Society of Italy,[59] followed in 1872 by the award of the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, while the Geographical and Asiatic Societies of Paris, the Geographical Societies of Italy and Berlin, the Academy of Bologna, and other learned bodies, enrolled him as an Honorary Member.

Reverting to 1869, we may note that Yule, when passing through Paris early in the spring, became acquainted, through his friend M. Charles Maunoir, with the admirable work of exploration lately performed by Lieut. Francis Garnier of the French Navy. It was a time of much political excitement in France, the eve of the famous Plebiscite, and the importance of Garnier's work was not then recognised by his countrymen. Yule saw its value, and on arrival in London went straight to Sir Roderick Murchison, laid the facts before him, and suggested that no other traveller of the year had so good a claim to one of the two gold medals of the R.G.S. as this French naval Lieutenant. Sir Roderick was propitious, and accordingly in May the Patron's medal was assigned to Garnier, who was touchingly grateful to Yule; whilst the French Minister of Marine marked his appreciation of Yule's good offices by presenting him with the magnificent volumes commemorating the expedition.[60]

Yule was in Paris in 1871, immediately after the suppression of the Commune, and his letters gave interesting accounts of the extraordinary state of affairs then prevailing. In August, he served as President of the Geographical Section of the British Association at its Edinburgh meeting.

On his return to Palermo, he devoted himself specially to the geography of the Oxus region, and the result appeared next year in his introduction and notes to Wood's Journey. Soon after his return to Palermo, he became greatly interested in the plans, about which he was consulted, of an English church, the gift to the English community of two of its oldest members, Messrs Ingham and Whitaker. Yule's share in the enterprise gradually expanded, until he became a sort of volunteer clerk of the works, to the great benefit of his health, as this occupation during the next three years, whilst adding to his interests, also kept him longer in the open air than would otherwise have been the case. It was a real misfortune to Yule (and one of which he was himself at times conscious) that he had no taste for any out-of-door pursuits, neither for any form of natural science, nor for gardening, nor for any kind of sport nor games. Nor did he willingly ride.[61] He was always restless away from his books. There can be no doubt that want of sufficient air and exercise, reacting on an impaired liver, had much to do with Yule's unsatisfactory state of health and frequent extreme depression. There was no lack of agreeable and intelligent society at Palermo (society that the present writer recalls with cordial regard), to which every winter brought pleasant temporary additions, both English and foreign, the best of whom generally sought Yule's acquaintance. Old friends too were not wanting; many found their way to Palermo, and when such came, he was willing to show them hospitality and to take them excursions, and occasionally enjoyed these. But though the beautiful city and surrounding country were full of charm and interest, Yule was too much pre-occupied by his own special engrossing pursuits ever really to get the good of his surroundings, of which indeed he often seemed only half conscious.

By this time Yule had obtained, without ever having sought it, a distinct and, in some respects, quite unique position in geographical science. Although his Essay on the Geography of the Oxus Region (1872) received comparatively little public attention at home, it had yet made its mark once for all,[62] and from this time, if not earlier, Yule's high authority in all questions of Central Asian geography was generally recognised. He had long ere this, almost unconsciously, laid the broad foundations of that "Yule method," of which Baron von Richthofen has written so eloquently, declaring that not only in his own land, "but also in the literatures of France, Italy, Germany, and other countries, the powerful stimulating influence of the Yule method is visible."[63] More than one writer has indeed boldly compared Central Asia before Yule to Central Africa before Livingstone!

Yule had wrought from sheer love of the work and without expectation of public recognition, and it was therefore a great surprise as well as gratification to him, to find that the demand for his Marco Polo was such as to justify the appearance of a second edition only a few years after the first. The preparation of this enlarged edition, with much other miscellaneous work (see subjoined bibliography), and the superintendence of the building of the church already named, kept him fully occupied for the next three years.

Amongst the parerga and miscellaneous occupations of Yule's leisure hours in the period 1869-74, may be mentioned an interesting correspondence with Professor W. W. Skeat on the subject of William of Palerne and Sicilian examples of the Werwolf; the skilful analysis and exposure of Klaproth's false geography;[64] the purchase and despatch of Sicilian seeds and young trees for use in the Punjab, at the request of the Indian Forestry Department; translations (prepared for friends) of tracts on the cultivation of Sumach and the collection of Manna as practised in Sicily; also a number of small services rendered to the South Kensington Museum, at the request of the late Sir Henry Cole. These latter included obtaining Italian and Sicilian bibliographic contributions to the Science and Art Department's Catalogue of Books on Art, selecting architectural subjects to be photographed;[65] negotiating the purchase of the original drawings illustrative of Padre B. Gravina's great work on the Cathedral of Monreale; and superintending the execution of a copy in mosaic of the large mosaic picture (in the Norman Palatine Chapel, Palermo,) of the Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem.

In the spring of 1875, just after the publication of the second edition of Marco Polo, Yule had to mourn the loss of his noble wife. He was absent from Sicily at the time, but returned a few hours after her death on 30th April. She had suffered for many years from a severe form of heart disease, but her end was perfect peace. She was laid to rest, amid touching tokens of both public and private sympathy, in the beautiful camposanto on Monte Pellegrino. What her loss was to Yule only his oldest and closest friends were in a position to realise. Long years of suffering had impaired neither the soundness of her judgment nor the sweetness, and even gaiety, of her happy, unselfish disposition. And in spirit, as even in appearance, she retained to the very last much of the radiance of her youth. Nor were her intellectual gifts less remarkable. Few who had once conversed with her ever forgot her, and certainly no one who had once known her intimately ever ceased to love her.[66]

Shortly after this calamity, Yule removed to London, and on the retirement of his old friend, Sir William Baker, from the India Council early that autumn, Lord Salisbury at once selected him for the vacant seat. Nothing would ever have made him a party-man, but he always followed Lord Salisbury with conviction, and worked under him with steady confidence.

In 1877 Yule married, as his second wife, the daughter of an old friend,[67] a very amiable woman twenty years his junior, who made him very happy until her untimely death in 1881. From the time of his joining the India Council, his duties at the India Office of course occupied a great part of his time, but he also continued to do an immense amount of miscellaneous literary work, as may be seen by reference to the subjoined bibliography, (itself probably incomplete). In Council he invariably "showed his strong determination to endeavour to deal with questions on their own merits and not only by custom and precedent."[68] Amongst subjects in which he took a strong line of his own in the discussions of the Council, may be specially instanced his action in the matter of the cotton duties (in which he defended native Indian manufactures as against hostile Manchester interests); the Vernacular Press Act, the necessity for which he fully recognised; and the retention of Kandahar, for which he recorded his vote in a strong minute. In all these three cases, which are typical of many others, his opinion was overruled, but having been carefully and deliberately formed, it remained unaffected by defeat.

In all matters connected with Central Asian affairs, Yule's opinion always carried great weight; some of his most competent colleagues indeed preferred his authority in this field to that of even Sir Henry Rawlinson, possibly for the reason given by Sir M. Grant Duff, who has epigrammatically described the latter as good in Council but dangerous in counsel.[69]

Yule's courageous independence and habit of looking at all public questions by the simple light of what appeared to him right, yet without fads or doctrinairism, earned for him the respect of the successive Secretaries of State under whom he served, and the warm regard and confidence of his other colleagues. The value attached to his services in Council was sufficiently shown by the fact that when the period of ten years (for which members are usually appointed), was about to expire, Lord Hartington (now Duke of Devonshire), caused Yule's appointment to be renewed for life, under a special Act of Parliament passed for this purpose in 1885.

His work as a member of the Army Sanitary Committee, brought him into communication with Miss Florence Nightingale, a privilege which he greatly valued and enjoyed, though he used to say: "She is worse than a Royal Commission to answer, and, in the most gracious charming manner possible, immediately finds out all I don't know!" Indeed his devotion to the "Lady-in-Chief" was scarcely less complete than Kinglake's.

In 1880, Yule was appointed to the Board of Visitors of the Government Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, a post which added to his sphere of interests without materially increasing his work. In 1882, he was much gratified by being named an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, more especially as it was to fill one of the two vacancies created by the deaths of Thomas Carlyle and Dean Stanley.

Yule had been President of the Hakluyt Society from 1877, and in 1885 was elected President also of the Royal Asiatic Society. He would probably also have been President of the Royal Geographical Society, but for an untoward incident. Mention has already been made of his constant determination to judge all questions by the simple touchstone of what he believed to be right, irrespective of personal considerations. It was in pursuance of these principles that, at the cost of great pain to himself and some misrepresentation, he in 1878 sundered his long connection with the Royal Geographical Society, by resigning his seat on their Council, solely in consequence of their adoption of what he considered a wrong policy. This severance occurred just when it was intended to propose him as President. Some years later, at the personal request of the late Lord Aberdare, a President in all respects worthy of the best traditions of that great Society, Yule consented to rejoin the Council, which he re-entered as a Vice-President.

In 1883, the University of Edinburgh celebrated its Tercentenary, when Yule was selected as one of the recipients of the honorary degree of LL.D. His letters from Edinburgh, on this occasion, give a very pleasant and amusing account of the festivity and of the celebrities he met. Nor did he omit to chronicle the envious glances cast, as he alleged, by some British men of science on the splendours of foreign Academic attire, on the yellow robes of the Sorbonne, and the Palms of the Institute of France! Pasteur was, he wrote, the one most enthusiastically acclaimed of all who received degrees.

I think it was about the same time that M. Renan was in England, and called upon Sir Henry Maine, Yule, and others at the India Office. On meeting just after, the colleagues compared notes as to their distinguished but unwieldy visitor. "It seems that le style n'est pas l'homme meme in this instance," quoth "Ancient Law" to "Marco Polo." And here it may be remarked that Yule so completely identified himself with his favourite traveller that he frequently signed contributions to the public press as MARCUS PAULUS VENETUS or M.P.V. His more intimate friends also gave him the same sobriquet, and once, when calling on his old friend, Dr. John Brown (the beloved chronicler of Rab and his Friends), he was introduced by Dr. John to some lion-hunting American visitors as "our Marco Polo." The visitors evidently took the statement in a literal sense, and scrutinised Yule closely.[70]

In 1886 Yule published his delightful Anglo-Indian Glossary, with the whimsical but felicitous sub-title of Hobson-Jobson (the name given by the rank and file of the British Army in India to the religious festival in celebration of Hassan and Husain).

This Glossary was an abiding interest to both Yule and the present writer. Contributions of illustrative quotations came from most diverse and unexpected sources, and the arrival of each new word or happy quotation was quite an event, and gave such pleasure to the recipients as can only be fully understood by those who have shared in such pursuits. The volume was dedicated in affecting terms to his elder brother, Sir George Yule, who, unhappily, did not survive to see it completed.

In July 1885, the two brothers had taken the last of many happy journeys together, proceeding to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. A few months later, on 13th January 1886, the end came suddenly to the elder, from the effects of an accident at his own door.[71]

It may be doubted if Yule ever really got over the shock of this loss, though he went on with his work as usual, and served that year as a Royal Commissioner on the occasion of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886.

From 1878, when an accidental chill laid the foundations of an exhausting, though happily quite painless, malady, Yule's strength had gradually failed, although for several years longer his general health and energies still appeared unimpaired to a casual observer. The condition of public affairs also, in some degree, affected his health injuriously. The general trend of political events from 1880 to 1886 caused him deep anxiety and distress, and his righteous wrath at what he considered the betrayal of his country's honour in the cases of Frere, of Gordon, and of Ireland, found strong, and, in a noble sense, passionate expression in both prose and verse. He was never in any sense a party man, but he often called himself "one of Mr. Gladstone's converts," i.e. one whom Gladstonian methods had compelled to break with liberal tradition and prepossessions.

Nothing better expresses Yule's feeling in the period referred to than the following letter, written in reference to the R. E. Gordon Memorial,[72] but of much wider application: "Will you allow me an inch or two of space to say to my brother officers, 'Have nothing to do with the proposed Gordon Memorial.'

"That glorious memory is in no danger of perishing and needs no memorial. Sackcloth and silence are what it suggests to those who have guided the action of England; and Englishmen must bear the responsibility for that action and share its shame. It is too early for atoning memorials; nor is it possible for those who take part in them to dissociate themselves from a repulsive hypocrisy.

"Let every one who would fain bestow something in honour of the great victim, do, in silence, some act of help to our soldiers or their families, or to others who are poor and suffering.

"In later days our survivors or successors may look back with softened sorrow and pride to the part which men of our corps have played in these passing events, and Charles Gordon far in the front of all; and then they may set up our little tablets, or what not—not to preserve the memory of our heroes, but to maintain the integrity of our own record of the illustrious dead."

Happily Yule lived to see the beginning of better times for his country. One of the first indications of that national awakening was the right spirit in which the public, for the most part, received Lord Wolseley's stirring appeal at the close of 1888, and Yule was so much struck by the parallelism between Lord Wolseley's warning and some words of his own contained in the pseudo-Polo fragment (see above, end of Preface), that he sent Lord Wolseley the very last copy of the 1875 edition of Marco Polo, with a vigorous expression of his sentiments.

That was probably Yule's last utterance on a public question. The sands of life were now running low, and in the spring of 1889, he felt it right to resign his seat on the India Council, to which he had been appointed for life. On this occasion Lord Cross, then Secretary of State for India, successfully urged his acceptance of the K.C.S.I., which Yule had refused several years before.

In the House of Lords, Viscount Cross subsequently referred to his resignation in the following terms. He said: "A vacancy on the Council had unfortunately occurred through the resignation from ill-health of Sir Henry Yule, whose presence on the Council had been of enormous advantage to the natives of the country. A man of more kindly disposition, thorough intelligence, high-minded, upright, honourable character, he believed did not exist; and he would like to bear testimony to the estimation in which he was held, and to the services which he had rendered in the office he had so long filled."[73]

This year the Hakluyt Society published the concluding volume of Yule's last work of importance, the Diary of Sir William Hedges. He had for several years been collecting materials for a full memoir of his great predecessor in the domain of historical geography, the illustrious Rennell.[74] This work was well advanced as to preliminaries, but was not sufficiently developed for early publication at the time of Yule's death, and ere it could be completed its place had been taken by a later enterprise.

During the summer of 1889, Yule occupied much of his leisure by collecting and revising for re-issue many of his miscellaneous writings. Although not able to do much at a time, this desultory work kept him occupied and interested, and gave him much pleasure during many months. It was, however, never completed. Yule went to the seaside for a few weeks in the early summer, and subsequently many pleasant days were spent by him among the Surrey hills, as the guest of his old friends Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker. Of their constant and unwearied kindness, he always spoke with most affectionate gratitude. That autumn he took a great dislike to the English climate; he hankered after sunshine, and formed many plans, eager though indefinite, for wintering at Cintra, a place whose perfect beauty had fascinated him in early youth. But increasing weakness made a journey to Portugal, or even the South of France, an alternative of which he also spoke, very inexpedient, if not absolutely impracticable. Moreover, he would certainly have missed abroad the many friends and multifarious interests which still surrounded him at home. He continued to take drives, and occasionally called on friends, up to the end of November, and it was not until the middle of December that increasing weakness obliged him to take to his bed. He was still, however, able to enjoy seeing his friends—some to the very end, and he had a constant stream of visitors, mostly old friends, but also a few newer ones, who were scarcely less welcome. He also kept up his correspondence to the last, three attached brother R.E.'s, General Collinson, General Maclagan, and Major W. Broadfoot, taking it in turn with the present writer to act as his amanuensis.

On Friday, 27th December, Yule received a telegram from Paris, announcing his nomination that day as Corresponding Member of the Institute of France (Academie des Inscriptions), one of the few distinctions of any kind of which it can still be said that it has at no time lost any of its exalted dignity.

An honour of a different kind that came about the same time, and was scarcely less prized by him, was a very beautiful letter of farewell and benediction from Miss Florence Nightingale,[75] which he kept under his pillow and read many times. On the 28th, he dictated to the present writer his acknowledgment, also by telegraph, of the great honour done him by the Institute. The message was in the following words: "Reddo gratias, Illustrissimi Domini, ob honores tanto nimios quanto immeritos! Mihi robora deficiunt, vita collabitur, accipiatis voluntatem pro facto. Cum corde pleno et gratissimo moriturus vos, Illustrissimi Domini, saluto. YULE."

Sunday, 29th December, was a day of the most dense black fog, and he felt its oppression, but was much cheered by a visit from his ever faithful friend, Collinson, who, with his usual unselfishness, came to him that day at very great personal inconvenience.

On Monday, 30th December, the day was clearer, and Henry Yule awoke much refreshed, and in a peculiarly happy and even cheerful frame of mind. He said he felt so comfortable. He spoke of his intended book, and bade his daughter write about the inevitable delay to his publisher: "Go and write to John Murray," were indeed his last words to her. During the morning he saw some friends and relations, but as noon approached his strength flagged, and after a period of unconsciousness, he passed peacefully away in the presence of his daughter and of an old friend, who had come from Edinburgh to see him, but arrived too late for recognition. Almost at the same time that Yule fell asleep, his "stately message,"[76] was being read under the great Dome in Paris. Some two hours after Yule had passed away, F.-M. Lord Napier of Magdala, called on an errand of friendship, and at his desire was admitted to see the last of his early friend. When Lord Napier came out, he said to the present writer, in his own reflective way: "He looks as if he had just settled to some great work." With these suggestive words of the great soldier, who was so soon, alas, to follow his old friend to the work of another world, this sketch may fitly close.

* * * * *

The following excellent verses (of unknown authorship) on Yule's death, subsequently appeared in the Academy:[77]

"'Moriturus vos saluto' Breathes his last the dying scholar— Tireless student, brilliant writer; He 'salutes his age' and journeys To the Undiscovered Country. There await him with warm welcome All the heroes of old Story— The Venetians, the Ca Polo, Marco, Nicolo, Maffeo, Odoric of Pordenone, Ibn Batuta, Marignolli, Benedict de Goes—'Seeking Lost Cathay and finding Heaven.' Many more whose lives he cherished With the piety of learning; Fading records, buried pages, Failing lights and fires forgotten, By his energy recovered, By his eloquence re-kindled. 'Moriturus vos saluto' Breathes his last the dying scholar, And the far off ages answer: Immortales te salutant. D. M."

The same idea had been previously embodied, in very felicitous language, by the late General Sir William Lockhart, in a letter which that noble soldier addressed to the present writer a few days after Yule's death. And Yule himself would have taken pleasure in the idea of those meetings with his old travellers, which seemed so certain to his surviving friends.[78]

He rests in the old cemetery at Tunbridge Wells, with his second wife, as he had directed. A great gathering of friends attended the first part of the burial service which was held in London on 3rd January, 1890. Amongst those present were witnesses of every stage of his career, from his boyish days at the High School of Edinburgh downwards. His daughter, of course, was there, led by the faithful, peerless friend who was so soon to follow him into the Undiscovered Country.[79] She and his youngest nephew, with two cousins and a few old friends, followed his remains over the snow to the graveside. The epitaph subsequently inscribed on the tomb was penned by Yule himself, but is by no means representative of his powers in a kind of composition in which he had so often excelled in the service of others. As a composer of epitaphs and other monumental inscriptions few of our time have surpassed, if any have equalled him, in his best efforts.

SIR GEORGE UDNY YULE, C.B., K.C.S.I.[80]

George Udny Yule, born at Inveresk in 1813, passed through Haileybury into the Bengal Civil Service, which he entered at the age of 18 years. For twenty-five years his work lay in Eastern Bengal. He gradually became known to the Government for his activity and good sense, but won a far wider reputation as a mighty hunter, alike with hog-spear and double barrel. By 1856 the roll of his slain tigers exceeded four hundred, some of them of special fame; after that he continued slaying his tigers, but ceased to count them. For some years he and a few friends used annually to visit the plains of the Brahmaputra, near the Garrow Hills—an entirely virgin country then, and swarming with large game. Yule used to describe his once seeing seven rhinoceroses at once on the great plain, besides herds of wild buffalo and deer of several kinds. One of the party started the theory that Noah's Ark had been shipwrecked there! In those days George Yule was the only man to whom the Maharajah of Nepaul, Sir Jung Bahadur, conceded leave to shoot within his frontier.

Yule was first called from his useful obscurity in 1856. The year before, the Sonthals in insurrection disturbed the long unbroken peace of the Delta. These were a numerous non-Aryan, uncivilised, but industrious race, driven wild by local mismanagement, and the oppressions of Hindoo usurers acting through the regulation courts. After the suppression of their rising, Yule was selected by Sir F. Halliday, who knew his man, to be Commissioner of the Bhagulpoor Division, containing some six million souls, and embracing the hill country of the Sonthals. He obtained sanction to a code for the latter, which removed these people entirely from the Court system, and its tribe of leeches, and abolished all intermediaries between the Sahib and the Sonthal peasant. Through these measures, and his personal influence, aided by picked assistants, he was able to effect, with extraordinary rapidity, not only their entire pacification, but such a beneficial change in their material condition, that they have risen from a state of barbarous penury to comparative prosperity and comfort.

George Yule was thus engaged when the Mutiny broke out, and it soon made itself felt in the districts under him. To its suppression within his limits, he addressed himself with characteristic vigour. Thoroughly trusted by every class—by his Government, by those under him, by planters and by Zemindars—he organised a little force, comprising a small detachment of the 5th Regiment, a party of British sailors, mounted volunteers from the districts, etc., and of this he became practically the captain. Elephants were collected from all quarters to spare the legs of his infantry and sailors; while dog-carts were turned into limbers for the small three-pounders of the seamen. And with this little army George Yule scoured the Trans-Gangetic districts, leading it against bodies of the Mutineers, routing them upon more than one occasion, and out-manoeuvring them by his astonishing marches, till he succeeded in driving them across the Nepaul frontier. No part of Bengal was at any time in such danger, and nowhere was the danger more speedily and completely averted.

After this Yule served for two or three years as Chief Commissioner of Oudh, where in 1862 he married Miss Pemberton, the daughter of a very able father, and the niece of Sir Donald MacLeod, of honoured and beloved memory. Then for four or five years he was Resident at Hyderabad, where he won the enduring friendship of Sir Salar Jung. "Everywhere he showed the same characteristic firm but benignant justice. Everywhere he gained the lasting attachment of all with whom he had intimate dealings—except tigers and scoundrels."

Many years later, indignant at the then apparently supine attitude of the British Government in the matter of the Abyssinian captives, George Yule wrote a letter (necessarily published without his name, as he was then on the Governor-General's Council), to the editor of an influential Indian paper, proposing a private expedition should be organised for their delivery from King Theodore, and inviting the editor (Dr. George Smith) to open a list of subscriptions in his paper for this purpose, to which Yule offered to contribute L2000 by way of beginning. Although impracticable in itself, it is probable that, as in other cases, the existence of such a project may have helped to force the Government into action. The particulars of the above incident were printed by Dr. Smith in his Memoir of the Rev. John Wilson, but are given here from memory.

From Hyderabad he was promoted in 1867 to the Governor-General's Council, but his health broke down under the sedentary life, and he retired and came home in 1869.

After some years of country life in Scotland, where he bought a small property, he settled near his brother in London, where he was a principal instrument in enabling Sir George Birdwood to establish the celebration of Primrose Day (for he also was "one of Mr. Gladstone's converts"). Sir George Yule never sought 'London Society' or public employment, but in 1877 he was offered and refused the post of Financial Adviser to the Khedive under the Dual control. When his feelings were stirred he made useful contributions to the public press, which, after his escape from official trammels, were always signed. The very last of these (St. James Gazette, 24th February 1885) was a spirited protest against the snub administered by the late Lord Derby, as Secretary of State, to the Colonies, when they had generously offered assistance in the Soudan campaign. He lived a quiet, happy, and useful life in London, where he was the friend and unwearied helper of all who needed help. He found his chief interests in books and flowers, and in giving others pleasure. Of rare unselfishness and sweet nature, single in mind and motive, fearing God and knowing no other fear, he was regarded by a large number of people with admiring affection. He met his death by a fall on the frosty pavement at his door, in the very act of doing a kindness. An interesting sketch of Sir George Yule's Indian career, by one who knew him thoroughly, is to be found in Sir Edward Braddon's Thirty Years of Shikar. An account of his share in the origin of Primrose Day appeared in the St. James' Gazette during 1891.

[1] There is a vague tradition that these Yules descend from the same stock as the Scandinavian family of the same name, which gave Denmark several men of note, including the great naval hero Niels Juel. The portraits of these old Danes offer a certain resemblance of type to those of their Scots namesakes, and Henry Yule liked to play with the idea, much in the same way that he took humorous pleasure in his reputed descent from Michael Scott, the Wizard! (This tradition was more historical, however, and stood thus: Yule's great grandmother was a Scott of Ancrum, and the Scotts of Ancrum had established their descent from Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie, reputed to be the Wizard.) Be their origin what it may, Yule's forefathers had been already settled on the Border hills for many generations, when in the time of James VI. they migrated to the lower lands of East Lothian, where in the following reign they held the old fortalice of Fentoun Tower of Nisbet of Dirleton. When Charles II. empowered his Lord Lyon to issue certificates of arms (in place of the Lyon records removed and lost at sea by the Cromwellian Government), these Yules were among those who took out confirmation of arms, and the original document is still in the possession of the head of the family.

Though Yules of sorts are still to be found in Scotland, the present writer is the only member of the Fentoun Tower family now left in the country, and of the few remaining out of it most are to be found in the Army List.

[2] The literary taste which marked William Yule probably came to him from his grandfather, the Rev. James Rose, Episcopal Minister of Udny, in Aberdeenshire. James Rose, a non-jurant (i.e. one who refused to acknowledge allegiance to the Hanoverian King), was a man of devout, large, and tolerant mind, as shown by writings still extant. His father, John Rose, was the younger son of the 14th Hugh of Kilravock. He married Margaret Udny of Udny, and was induced by her to sell his pleasant Ross-shire property and invest the proceeds in her own bleak Buchan. When George Yule (about 1759) brought home Elizabeth Rose as his wife, the popular feeling against the Episcopal Church was so strong and bitter in Lothian, that all the men of the family— themselves Presbyterians—accompanied Mrs. Yule as a bodyguard on the occasion of her first attendance at the Episcopal place of worship. Years after, when dissensions had arisen in the Church of Scotland, Elizabeth Yule succoured and protected some of the dissident Presbyterian ministers from their persecutors.

[3] General Collinson in Royal Engineers' Journal 1st Feb. 1890. The gifted author of this excellent sketch himself passed away on 22nd April 1902.

[4] The grave thoughtful face of William Yule was conspicuous in the picture of a Durbar (by an Italian artist, but not Zoffany), which long hung on the walls of the Nawab's palace at Lucknow. This picture disappeared during the Mutiny of 1857.

[5] Colonel Udny Yule, C.B. "When he joined, his usual nomen and cognomen puzzled the staff-sergeant at Fort-William, and after much boggling on the cadet parade, the name was called out Whirly Wheel, which produced no reply, till some one at a venture shouted, 'sick in hospital.'" (Athenaeum, 24th Sept. 1881.) The ship which took Udny Yule to India was burnt at sea. After keeping himself afloat for several hours in the water, he was rescued by a passing ship and taken back to the Mauritius, whence, having lost everything but his cadetship, he made a fresh start for India, where he and William for many years had a common purse. Colonel Udny Yule commanded a brigade at the Siege of Cornelis (1811), which gave us Java, and afterwards acted as Resident under Sir Stamford Raffles. Forty-five years after the retrocession of Java, Henry Yule found the memory of his uncle still cherished there.

[6] Article on the Oriental Section of the British Museum Library in Athenaeum, 24th Sept. 1881. Major Yule's Oriental Library was presented by his sons to the British Museum a few years after his death.

[7] It may be amusing to note that he was considered an almost dangerous person because he read the Scotsman newspaper!

[8] Athenaeum, 24th Sept. 1881. A gold chain given by the last Dauphiness is in the writer's possession.

[9] Dr. John Yule (b. 176-d. 1827), a kindly old savant. He was one of the earliest corresponding members of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and the author of some botanical tracts.

[10] According to Brunet, by Lucas Pennis after Antonio Tempesta.

[11] Concerning some little-known Travellers in the East. ASIATIC QUARTERLY, vol. v. (1888).

[12] William Yule died in 1839, and rests with his parents, brothers, and many others of his kindred, in the ruined chancel of the ancient Norman Church of St. Andrew, at Gulane, which had been granted to the Yule family as a place of burial by the Nisbets of Dirleton, in remembrance of the old kindly feeling subsisting for generations between them and their tacksmen in Fentoun Tower. Though few know its history, a fragrant memorial of this wise and kindly scholar is still conspicuous in Edinburgh. The magnificent wall-flower that has, for seventy summers, been a glory of the Castle rock, was originally all sown by the patient hand of Major Yule, the self-sowing of each subsequent year, of course, increasing the extent of bloom. Lest the extraordinarily severe spring of 1895 should have killed off much of the old stock, another (but much more limited) sowing on the northern face of the rock was in that year made by his grand-daughter, the present writer, with the sanction and active personal help of the lamented General (then Colonel) Andrew Wauchope of Niddrie Marischal. In Scotland, where the memory of this noble soldier is so greatly revered, some may like to know this little fact. May the wall-flower of the Castle rock long flourish a fragrant memorial of two faithful soldiers and true-hearted Scots.

[13] Obituary notice of Yule, by Gen. R. Maclagan, R.E. Proceedings, R. G. S. 1890.

[14] This was the famous "Grey Dinner," of which The Shepherd made grim fun in the Noctes.

[15] Probably the specimen from South America, of which an account was published in 1833.

[16] Rawnsley, Memoir of Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle.

[17] Biog. Sketch of Yule, by C. Trotter, Proceedings, R.S.E. vol. xvii.

[18] Biog. Sketch of Yule, by C. Trotter, Proceedings, R.S.E. vol. xvii.

[19] After leaving the army, Yule always used this sword when wearing uniform.

[20] The Engineer cadets remained at Addiscombe a term (= 6 months) longer than the Artillery cadets, and as the latter were ordinarily gazetted full lieutenants six months after passing out, unfair seniority was obviated by the Engineers receiving the same rank on passing out of Addiscombe.

[21] Yule, in Memoir of General Becher.

[22] Collinson's Memoir of Yule in R. E. Journal.

[23] The picture was subscribed for by his brother officers in the corps, and painted in 1880 by T. B. Wirgman. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1881. A reproduction of the artist's etching from it forms the frontispiece of this volume.

[24] In Memoir of Gen. John Becher.

[25] General Patrick Yule (b. 1795, d. 1873) was a thorough soldier, with the repute of being a rigid disciplinarian. He was a man of distinguished presence, and great charm of manner to those whom he liked, which were by no means all. The present writer holds him in affectionate remembrance, and owes to early correspondence with him much of the information embodied in preceding notes. He served on the Canadian Boundary Commission of 1817, and on the Commission of National Defence of 1859, was prominent in the Ordnance Survey, and successively Commanding R.E. in Malta and Scotland. He was Engineer to Sir C. Fellows' Expedition, which gave the nation the Lycian Marbles, and while Commanding R.E. in Edinburgh, was largely instrumental in rescuing St. Margaret's Chapel in the Castle from desecration and oblivion. He was a thorough Scot, and never willingly tolerated the designation N.B. on even a letter. He had cultivated tastes, and under a somewhat austere exterior he had a most tender heart. When already past sixty, he made a singularly happy marriage to a truly good woman, who thoroughly appreciated him. He was the author of several Memoirs on professional subjects. He rests in St. Andrew's, Gulane.

[26] Collinson's Memoir of Yule.

[27] Notes on the Iron of the Khasia Hills and Notes on the Khasia Hills and People both in Journal of the R. Asiatic Society of Bengal, vols. xi. and xiii.

[28] Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Clerk, Political Officer with the expedition. Was twice Governor of Bombay and once Governor of the Cape: "A diplomatist of the true English stamp—undaunted in difficulties and resolute to maintain the honour of his country." (Sir H. B. Edwardes, Life of Henry Lawrence, i. 267). He died in 1889.

[29] Note by Yule, communicated by him to Mr. R. B. Smith and printed by the latter in Life of Lord Lawrence.

[30] And when nearing his own end, it was to her that his thoughts turned most constantly.

[31] Yule and Maclagan's Memoir of Sir W. Baker.

[32] Maclagan's Memoir of Yule, P.R.G.S., Feb. 1890.

[33] On hearing this, Yule said to him, "Your story is quite correct except in one particular; you understated the amount of the fine."

[34] Yule and Maclagan's Memoir of Baker.

[35] It would appear that Major Yule had presented the Rodgers with some specimens of Indian scissors, probably as suggestions in developing that field of export. Scissors of elaborate design, usually damascened or gilt, used to form a most important item in every set of Oriental writing implements. Even long after adhesive envelopes had become common in European Turkey, their use was considered over familiar, if not actually disrespectful, for formal letters, and there was a particular traditional knack in cutting and folding the special envelope for each missive, which was included in the instruction given by every competent Khoja as the present writer well remembers in the quiet years that ended with the disasters of 1877.

[36] Collinson's Memoir of Yule, Royal Engineer Journal.

[37] Extract from Preface to Ava, edition of 1858.

[38] The present whereabouts of this picture is unknown to the writer. It was lent to Yule in 1889 by Lord Dalhousie's surviving daughter (for whom he had strong regard and much sympathy), and was returned to her early in 1890, but is not named in the catalogue of Lady Susan's effects, sold at Edinburgh in 1898 after her death. At that sale the present writer had the satisfaction of securing for reverent preservation the watch used throughout his career by the great Marquess.

[39] Now in the writer's possession. It was for many years on exhibition in the Edinburgh and South Kensington Museums.

[40] Article by Yule on Lord Lawrence, Quarterly Review for April, 1883.

[41] Messrs. Smith & Elder.

[42] Preface to Narrative of a Mission to the Court of Ava. Before these words were written, Yule had had the sorrow of losing his elder brother Robert, who had fallen in action before Delhi (19th June, 1857), whilst in command of his regiment, the 9th Lancers. Robert Abercromby Yule (born 1817) was a very noble character and a fine soldier. He had served with distinction in the campaigns in Afghanistan and the Sikh Wars, and was the author of an excellent brief treatise on Cavalry Tactics. He had a ready pencil and a happy turn for graceful verse. In prose his charming little allegorical tale for children, entitled The White Rhododendron, is as pure and graceful as the flower whose name it bears. Like both his brothers, he was at once chivalrous and devout, modest, impulsive, and impetuous. No officer was more beloved by his men than Robert Yule, and when some one met them carrying back his covered body from the field and enquired of the sergeant: "Who have you got there?" the reply was: "Colonel Yule, and better have lost half the regiment, sir." It was in the chivalrous effort to extricate some exposed guns that he fell. Some one told afterwards that when asked to go to the rescue, he turned in the saddle, looked back wistfully on his regiment, well knowing the cost of such an enterprise, then gave the order to advance and charge. "No stone marks the spot where Yule went down, but no stone is needed to commemorate his valour" (Archibald Forbes, in Daily News, 8th Feb. 1876). At the time of his death Colonel R. A. Yule had been recommended for the C.B. His eldest son, Colonel J. H. Yule, C.B., distinguished himself in several recent campaigns (on the Burma-Chinese frontier, in Tirah, and South Africa).

[43] Baker went home in November, 1857, but did not retire until the following year.

[44] Nothing was more worthy of respect in Yule's fine character than the energy and success with which he mastered his natural temperament in the last ten years of his life, when few would have guessed his original fiery disposition.

[45] Not without cause did Sir J. P. Grant officially record that "to his imperturbable temper the Government of India owed much."

[46] Yule's colour-blindness was one of the cases in which Dalton, the original investigator of this optical defect, took special interest. At a later date (1859) he sent Yule, through Professor Wilson, skeins of coloured silks to name. Yule's elder brother Robert had the same peculiarity of sight, and it was also present in two earlier and two later generations of their mother's family—making five generations in all. But in no case did it pass from parent to child, always passing in these examples, by a sort of Knight's move, from uncle to nephew. Another peculiarity of Yule's more difficult to describe was the instinctive association of certain architectural forms or images with the days of the week. He once, and once only (in 1843), met another person, a lady who was a perfect stranger, with the same peculiarity. About 1878-79 he contributed some notes on this obscure subject to one of the newspapers, in connection with the researches of Mr. Francis Galton, on Visualisation, but the particulars are not now accessible.

[47] From Yule's verses on her grave.

[48] Lord Canning to Lady Clanricarde: Letter dated Barrackpoor, 19th Nov. 1861, 7 A.M., printed in Two Noble Lives, by A. J. C. Hare, and here reproduced by Mr. Hare's permission.

[49] Lord Canning's letter to Lady Clanricarde. He gave to Yule Lady Canning's own silver drinking-cup, which she had constantly used. It is carefully treasured, with other Canning and Dalhousie relics, by the present writer.

[50] Many years later Yule wrote of Lord Canning as follows: "He had his defects, no doubt. He had not at first that entire grasp of the situation that was wanted at such a time of crisis. But there is a virtue which in these days seems unknown to Parliamentary statesmen in England—Magnanimity. Lord Canning was an English statesman, and he was surpassingly magnanimous. There is another virtue which in Holy Writ is taken as the type and sum of all righteousness—Justice—and he was eminently just. The misuse of special powers granted early in the Mutiny called for Lord Canning's interference, and the consequence was a flood of savage abuse; the violence and bitterness of which it is now hard to realise." (Quarterly Review, April, 1883, p. 306.)

[51] During the next ten years Yule continued to visit London annually for two or three months in the spring or early summer.

[52] Now in the writer's possession. They appear in the well-known portrait of Lord Canning reading a despatch.

[53] Lord Canning's recommendation had been mislaid, and the India Office was disposed to ignore it. It was Lord Canning's old friend and Eton chum, Lord Granville, who obtained this tardy justice for Yule, instigated thereto by that most faithful friend, Sir Roderick Murchison.

[54] I cannot let the mention of this time of lonely sickness and trial pass without recording here my deep gratitude to our dear and honoured friend, John Ruskin. As my dear mother stood on the threshold between life and death at Mornex that sad spring, he was untiring in all kindly offices of friendship. It was her old friend, Principal A. J. Scott (then eminent, now forgotten), who sent him to call. He came to see us daily when possible, sometimes bringing MSS. of Rossetti and others to read aloud (and who could equal his reading?), and when she was too ill for this, or himself absent, he would send not only books and flowers to brighten the bare rooms of the hillside inn (then very primitive), but his own best treasures of Turner and W. Hunt, drawings and illuminated missals. It was an anxious solace; and though most gratefully enjoyed, these treasures were never long retained.

[55] Villa Mansi, nearly opposite the old Ducal Palace. With its private chapel, it formed three sides of a small place or court.

[56] He also at all times spared no pains to enforce that ideal on other index-makers, who were not always grateful for his sound doctrine!

[57] He saw a good deal of the outbreak when taking small comforts to a friend, the Commandent of the Military School, who was captured and imprisioned by the insurgents.

[58] After 1869 he discontinued sea-bathing.

[59] This was Yule's first geographical honour, but he had been elected into the Athenaeum Club, under "Rule II.," in January, 1867.

[60] Garnier took a distinguished part in the Defence of Paris in 1870-71, after which he resumed his naval service in the East, where he was killed in action. His last letter to Yule contained the simple announcement "J'ai pris Hanoi" a modest terseness of statement worthy of the best naval traditions.

[61] One year the present writer, at her mother's desire, induced him to take walks of 10 to 12 miles with her, but interesting and lovely as the scenery was, he soon wearied for his writing-table (even bringing his work with him), and thus little permanent good was effected. And it was just the same afterwards in Scotland, where an old Highland gillie, describing his experience of the Yule brothers, said: "I was liking to take out Sir George, for he takes the time to enjoy the hills, but (plaintively), the Kornel is no good, for he's just as restless as a water-wagtail!" If there be any mal de l'ecritoire corresponding to mal du pays, Yule certainly had it.

[62] The Russian Government in 1873 paid the same work the very practical compliment of circulating it largely amongst their officers in Central Asia.

[63] "Auch in den Literaturen von Frankreich, Italien, Deutschland und andere Laendern ist der maechtig treibende Einfluss der Yuleschen Methode, welche wissenschaftliche Grundlichkeit mit anmuthender Form verbindet, bemerkbar." (Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft fuer Erdkunde zu Berlin, Band XVII. No. 2.)

[64] This subject is too lengthy for more than cursory allusion here, but the patient analytic skill and keen venatic instinct with which Yule not only proved the forgery of the alleged Travels of Georg Ludwig von —— (that had been already established by Lord Strangford, whose last effort it was, and Sir Henry Rawlinson), but step by step traced it home to the arch-culprit Klaproth, was nothing less than masterly.

[65] This is probably the origin of the odd misstatement as to Yule occupying himself at Palermo with photography, made in the delightful Reminiscences of the late Colonel Balcarres Ramsay. Yule never attempted photography after 1852.

[66] She was a woman of fine intellect and wide reading; a skilful musician, who also sang well, and a good amateur artist in the style of Aug. Delacroix (of whom she was a favourite pupil). Of French and Italian she had a thorough and literary mastery, and how well she knew her own language is shown by the sound and pure English of a story she published in early life, under the pseudonym of Max Lyle (Fair Oaks, or The Experiences of Arnold Osborne, M.D., 2 vols., 1856). My mother was partly of Highland descent on both sides, and many of her fine qualities were very characteristic of that race. Before her marriage she took an active part in many good works, and herself originated the useful School for the Blind at Bath, in a room which she hired with her pocket-money, where she and her friend Miss Elwin taught such of the blind poor as they could gather together.

In the tablet which he erected to her memory in the family burial-place of St. Andrew's, Gulane, her husband described her thus:—"A woman singular in endowments, in suffering, and in faith; to whom to live was Christ, to die was gain."

[67] Mary Wilhelmina, daughter of F. Skipwith, Esq., B.C.S.

[68] Collinson's Memoir of Yule.

[69] See Notes from a Diary, 1888-91.

[70] The identification was not limited to Yule, for when travelling in Russia many years ago, the present writer was introduced by an absent-minded Russian savant to his colleagues as Mademoiselle Marco Paulovna!

[71] See Note on Sir George Yule's career at the end of this Memoir.

[72] Addressed to the Editor, Royal Engineers' Journal, who did not, however, publish it.

[73] Debate of 27th August, 1889, as reported in The Times of 28th August.

[74] Yule had published a brief but very interesting Memoir of Major Rennell in the R. E. Journal in 1881. He was extremely proud of the circumstance that Rennell's surviving grand-daughter presented to him a beautiful wax medallion portrait of the great geographer. This wonderfully life-like presentment was bequeathed by Yule to his friend Sir Joseph Hooker, who presented it to the Royal Society.

[75] Knowing his veneration for that noble lady, I had written to tell her of his condition, and to ask her to give him this last pleasure of a few words. The response was such as few but herself could write. This letter was not to be found after my father's death, and I can only conjecture that it must either have been given away by himself (which is most improbable), or was appropriated by some unauthorised outsider.

[76] So Sir M. E. Grant Duff well calls it.

[77] Academy, 19th March, 1890.

[78] He was much pleased, I remember, by a letter he once received from a kindly Franciscan friar, who wrote: "You may rest assured that the Beato Odorico will not forget all you have done for him."

[79] F.-M. Lord Napier of Magdala, died 14th January, 1890.

[80] This notice includes the greater part of an article written by my father, and published in the St. James' Gazette of 18th January, 1886, but I have added other details from personal recollection and other sources.—A. F. Y.



A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIR HENRY YULE'S WRITINGS

COMPILED BY H. CORDIER AND A. F. YULE[1]

1842 Notes on the Iron of the Kasia Hills. (Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XI. Part II. July-Dec. 1842, pp. 853-857.)

Reprinted in Proceedings of the Museum of Economic Geology, 1852.

1844 Notes on the Kasia Hills and People. By Lieut. H. Yule. (Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XII. Part II. July-Dec. 1844, pp. 612-631.)

1846 A Canal Act of the Emperor Akbar, with some notes and remarks on the History of the Western Jumna Canals. By Lieut. Yule. (Jour. Asiatic Society Bengal, XV. 1846, pp. 213-223.)

1850 The African Squadron vindicated. By Lieut. H. Yule. Second Edition. London, J. Ridgway, 1850, 8vo, pp. 41.

Had several editions. Reprinted in the Colonial Magazine of March, 1850.

—— L'Escadre Africaine vengee. Par le lieutenant H. Yule. Traduit du Colonial Magazine de Mars, 1850. (Revue Coloniale, Mai, 1850.)

1851 Fortification for Officers of the Army and Students of Military History, with Illustrations and Notes. By Lieut. H. Yule, Blackwood, MDCCCLI. 8vo, pp. xxii.-210. (There had been a previous edition privately printed.)

—— La Fortification mise a la portee des Officiers de l'Armee et des personnes qui se livrent a l'etude de l'histoire militaire (avec Atlas). Par H. Yule. Traduit de l'Anglais par M. Sapia, Chef de Bataillon d'Artillerie de Marine et M. Masselin, Capitaine du Genie. Paris, J. Correard, 1858, 8vo, pp. iii.-263, and Atlas.

1851 The Loss of the Birkenhead (Verses). (Edinburgh Courant, Dec. 1851.)

Republished in Henley's Lyra Heroica, a Book of Verse for Boys. London, D. Nutt, 1890.

1852 Tibet. (Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 1852.)

1856 Narrative of Major Phayre's Mission to the Court of Ava, with Notices of the Country, Government, and People. Compiled by Capt. H. Yule. Printed for submission to the Government of India. Calcutta, J. Thomas,... 1856, 4to, pp. xxix. + 1 f. n. ch. p. l. er. + pp. 315 + pp. cxiv. + pp. iv. and pp. 70.

The last pp. iv.-70 contain: Notes on the Geological features of the banks of the River Irawadee and on the Country north of the Amarapoora, by Thomas Oldham ... Calcutta, 1856.

—— A Narrative of the Mission sent by the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava in 1855, with Notices of the Country, Government, and People. By Capt. H. Yule. With Numerous Illustrations. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1858, 4to.

1857 On the Geography of Burma and its Tributary States, in illustration of a New Map of those Regions. (Journal, R.G.S., XXVII. 1857, pp. 54-108.)

—— Notes on the Geography of Burma, in illustration of a Map of that Country. (Proceedings R. G. S., vol. i. 1857, pp. 269-273.)

1857 An Account of the Ancient Buddhist Remains at Pagan on the Irawadi. By Capt. H. Yule. (Jour. Asiatic Society, Bengal, XXVI. 1857, pp. 1-51.)

1861 A few notes on Antiquities near Jubbulpoor. By Lieut.-Col. H. Yule. (Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, XXX. 1861, pp. 211-215.)

—— Memorandum on the Countries between Thibet, Yunan, and Burmah. By the Very Rev. Thomine D'Mazure (sic), communicated by Lieut.-Col. A. P. Phayre (with notes and a comment by Lieut.-Col. H. Yule) With a Map of the N. E. Frontier, prepared in the Office of the Surveyor-Gen. of India, Calcutta, Aug. 1861. (Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XXX. 1861, pp. 367-383.)

1862 Notes of a brief Visit to some of the Indian Remains in Java. By Lieut.-Col. H. Yule. (Jour. Asiatic Society, Bengal, XXXI. 1862, pp. 16-31.)

—— Sketches of Java. A Lecture delivered at the Meeting of the Bethune Society, Calcutta, 13th Feb. 1862.

—— Fragments of Unprofessional Papers gathered from an Engineer's portfolio after twenty-three years of service. Calcutta, 1862.

Ten copies printed for private circulation.

1863 Mirabilia descripta. The Wonders of the East. By Friar Jordanus, of the Order of Preachers and Bishop of Columbum in India the Greater (circa 1330). Translated from the Latin original, as published at Paris in 1839, in the Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires, of the Society of Geography, with the addition of a Commentary, by Col. H. Yule, London.

Printed for the Hakluyt Society, M.DCCC.LXIII, 8vo, p. iv.-xvii.-68.

—— Report on the Passes between Arakan and Burma [written in 1853]. (Papers on Indian Civil Engineering, vol. i. Roorkee.)

1866 Notices of Cathay. (Proceedings, R.G.S., X. 1866, pp. 270-278.)

—— Cathay and the Way Thither, being a Collection of Mediaeval Notices of China. Translated and Edited by Col. H. Yule With a Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse between China and the Western Nations previous to the Discovery of the Cape route. London, printed for the Hakluyt Society. M.DCCC.LXVI. 2 vols. 8vo.

1866 The Insurrection at Palermo. (Times, 29th Sep., 1866.)

—— Lake People. (The Athenaeum, No. 2042, 15th Dec. 1866, p. 804.)

Letter dated Palermo, 3rd Dec. 1866.

1867 General Index to the third ten Volumes of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Compiled by Col. H. Yule. London, John Murray, M.DCCCLXVII, 8vo, pp. 228.

—— A Week's Republic at Palermo. (Quarterly Review, Jan. 1867.)

—— On the Cultivation of Sumach (Rhus coriaria), in the Vicinity of Colli, near Palermo. By Prof. Inzenga. Translated by Col. H. Yule. Communicated by Dr. Cleghorn. From the Trans. Bot. Society, vol. ix., 1867-68, ppt. 8vo, p. 15.

Original first published in the Annali di Agricoltura Siciliana, redatti per l'Istituzione del Principe di Castelnuovo. Palermo, 1852.

1868 Marco Polo and his Recent Editors. (Quarterly Review, vol. 125, July and Oct. 1868, pp. 133 and 166.)

1870 An Endeavour to Elucidate Rashiduddin's Geographical Notices of India. (Journal R. Asiatic Society, N.S. iv. 1870, pp. 340-356.)

—— Some Account of the Senbyu Pagoda at Mengun, near the Burmese Capital, in a Memorandum by Capt. E. H. Sladen, Political Agent at Mandale; with Remarks on the Subject, by Col. H. Yule. (Ibid. pp. 406-429.)

—— Notes on Analogies of Manners between the Indo-Chinese and the Races of the Malay Archipelago. (Report Fortieth Meeting British Association, Liverpool, Sept. 1870, p. 178.)

1871 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. Newly translated and edited with notes. By Col. H. Yule. In two volumes. With Maps and other Illustrations. London, John Murray, 1871, 2 vols. 8vo.

—— The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. Newly translated and edited, with Notes, Maps, and other Illustrations. By Col. H. Yule. Second edition. London, John Murray, 1875, 2 vols. 8vo.

1871 Address by Col. H. Yule (Report Forty-First Meeting British Association, Edinburgh, Aug. 1871, pp. 162-174.)

1872 A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. By Captain John Wood, Indian Navy. New edition, edited by his Son. With an Essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus. By Col. H. Yule. With maps. London, John Murray, 1872. In-8, pp. xc.-280.

—— Papers connected with the Upper Oxus Regions. (Journal, xlii. 1872, pp. 438-481.)

—— Letter [on Yule's edition of Wood's Oxus]. (Ocean Highways, Feb. 1874, p. 475.)

Palermo, 9th Jan. 1874.

1873 Letter [about the route of M. Polo through Southern Kerman]. (Ocean Highways, March, 1873, p. 385.)

Palermo, 11th Jan. 1873.

—— On Northern Sumatra and especially Achin. (Ocean Highways, Aug. 1873, pp. 177-183.)

—— Notes on Hwen Thsang's Account of the Principalities of Tokharistan, in which some previous Geographical Identifications are reconsidered. (Jour. Royal Asiatic Society, N.S. vi. 1873, pp, 92-120 and p. 278.)

1874 Francis Garnier (In Memoriam). (Ocean Highways, pp. 487-491.) March, 1874.

—— Remarks on Mr. Phillips's Paper [Notices of Southern Mangi]. (Journal, XLIV. 1874, pp. 103-112.)

Palermo, 22nd Feb. 1874.

—— [Sir Frederic Goldsmid's] "Telegraph and Travel." (Geographical Magazine, April, 1874, p. 34; Oct. 1874, pp. 300-303.)

—— Geographical Notes on the Basins of the Oxus and the Zarafshan. By the late Alexis Fedchenko. (Geog. Mag., May, 1874, pp. 46-54.)

—— [Mr. Ashton Dilke on the Valley of the Ili.] (Geog. Mag., June, 1874, p. 123.) Palermo, 16th May, 1874.

—— The Atlas Sinensis and other Sinensiana. (Geog. Mag., 1st July, 1847, pp. 147-148.)

—— Letter [on Belasaghun]. (Geog. Mag., 1st July, 1874, p. 167; Ibid. 1st Sept. 1874, p. 254.)

Palermo, 17th June, 1874; 8th Aug. 1874.

1874 Bala Sagun and Karakorum. By Eugene Schuyler. With note by Col. Yule. (Geog. Mag., 1st Dec. 1874, p. 389.)

—— M. Khanikoff's Identifications of Names in Clavijo. (Ibid. pp. 389-390.)

1875 Notes [to the translation by Eugene Schuyler of Palladius's version of The Journey of the Chinese Traveller, Chang Fe-hui]. (Geog. Mag., 1st Jan. 1875, pp. 7-11).

—— Some Unscientific Notes on the History of Plants. (Geog. Mag., 1st Feb. 1875, pp. 49-51)

—— Trade Routes to Western China. (Geog. Mag., April, 1875, pp. 97-101.)

—— Garden of Transmigrated Souls [Friar Odoric]. (Geog. Mag., 1st May, 1875, pp. 137-138.)

—— A Glance at the Results of the Expedition to Hissar. By Herr P. Lerch. (Geog. Mag., 1st Nov. 1875, pp. 334-339.)

—— Kathay or Cathay. (Johnson's American Cyclopaedia.)

—— Achin. (Encycl. Brit. 9th edition, 1875, I. pp. 95-97.)

—— Afghanistan. (Ibid. pp. 227-241.)

—— Andaman Islands. (Ibid. II. 1875, pp. 11-13.)

—— India [Ancient]. (Map No. 31, 1874, in An Atlas of Ancient Geography, edited by William Smith and George Grove. London, John Murray, 1875.)

1876 Mongolia, the Tangut Country, and the Solitudes of Northern Tibet, being a Narrative of Three Years' Travel in Eastern High Asia. By Lieut.-Col. N. Prejevalsky, of the Russian Staff Corps; Mem. of the Imp. Russ. Geog. Soc. Translated by E. Delmar Morgan, F.R.G.S. With Introduction and Notes by Col. H. Yule. With Maps and Illustrations. London, Sampson Low, 1876, 8vo.

—— Tibet ... Edited by C. R. Markham. Notice of. (Times, 1876, ——?)

—— Eastern Persia. Letter. (The Athenaeum, No. 2559, 11th Nov. 1876.)

—— Review of H. Howorth's History of the Mongols, Part I. (The Athenaeum, No. 2560, 18th Nov. 1876, pp. 654-656.) Correspondence. (Ibid. No. 2561, 25th Nov. 1876.)