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.
