"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.