The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
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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.
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