[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,