Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
I think it was about the same time that M. Renan was in England, and
called upon Sir Henry Maine, Yule, and others at the India Office.
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 même_ 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 Husaïn).
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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