IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
r
1
MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE 1858-59.
1~
early life whimsically obstinate in maintaining his own view of
colours, had selected some cloth for trousers undeterred by his
tailor's timid remonstrance of " Not quite your usual taste, sir."
The result was that the Under-Secretary to Government startled
official Calcutta by appearing in brilliant claret - coloured
raiment. Baker remonstrated : " Claret-colour ! Nonsense,
my trousers .are silver grey," said Yule, and entirely declined to be
convinced. " I think I did convince him at last," said Baker with
some pride, when long after telling the story to the present writer.
" And then he gave them up ? " " Oh, no," said Sir William
ruefully, " he wore those claret - coloured trousers to the very
end." That episode probably belonged to the Dalhousie period.
When Yule resumed work in the Secretariat at Calcutta at
the close of the Mutiny, the inevitable arrears of work were
enormous. This may be the proper place to notice more fully
his action with respect to the choice of gauge for Indian rail-
ways already adverted to in brief. As we have seen, his own
convictions led to the adoption of the metre gauge over a great
part of India. This policy had great disadvantages not at first
foreseen, and has since been greatly modified. In justice
to Yule, however, it should be remembered that the con-
ditions and requirements of India have largely altered, alike
through the extraordinary growth of the Indian export,
especially the grain, trade, and the development of new
necessities for Imperial defence. These new features, however,
did but accentuate defects inherent in the system, but which
only prolonged practical experience made fully apparent.
At the outset the supporters of the narrow gauge seemed to
have the stronger position, as they were able to show that the
cost was much less, the rails employed being only about 3 rds the
weight of those required by the broad gauge, and many other
subsidiary expenses also proportionally less. On the other
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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 cpnnec-
tion with the researches of 1\1r. Francis Gallon, on Visualisation, but the particulars are not now accessible.
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