On
meeting just after, the colleagues compared notes as to their
distinguished but unwieldy visitor. "It seems that le style n'est pas
l'homme meme in this instance," quoth "Ancient Law" to "Marco Polo."
And here it may be remarked that Yule so completely identified himself
with his favourite traveller that he frequently signed contributions to
the public press as MARCUS PAULUS VENETUS or M.P.V. His more intimate
friends also gave him the same sobriquet, and once, when calling on his
old friend, Dr. John Brown (the beloved chronicler of Rab and his
Friends), he was introduced by Dr. John to some lion-hunting American
visitors as "our Marco Polo." The visitors evidently took the statement in
a literal sense, and scrutinised Yule closely.[70]
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.
