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.
