198 Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
change with the changing years. As I heard my friend relate anecdotes 
of the setting up of the 12-inch reflector in the gardens in Skene Terrace 
methought he was telhng me the story of the erection of the McClean 
telescope, thirty years later in time. 
With this new venture Gill started on observations of Double Stars, 
Nebulae, the Moon, and later on had in purpose the determination of 
stellar parallax, an investigation that ever attracted him. Indeed, earlv 
ia his career he seemed instinctively to appreciate the direction that 
astronomical progress would take during the next few decades. And so 
in 1866 his mind was directed to photography as an aid to astronomy.. 
In 1867 he was able to take an exceptionally good photograph of the 
moon. A transparency of this picture w^as sent to Dr. Huggins, then 
rising into prominence through his spectroscopic discoveries. Huggins 
thought so highly of the effort that he hung it in his dining-room window 
at Tulse Hill, and those who were privileged to visit his home knew 
with what delight he used to refer to this early attempt at celestial 
photography. 
Sometime in the year 1868 Lord Lindsay saw this photograph, noticed 
its definition and its consequent scientific value. A question regarding it 
brought the information from Dr. Huggins that it was taken by a young 
Aberdeen watchmaker interested in astronomy, and with an instrument 
practically of his own construction. Lord Lindsay asked for an introduc- 
tion to Gill, and the acquaintance thus began soon ripened into a very 
close and abiding friendship. 
The future history of this photograph is of interest. It remained in 
the possession of Huggins till his death, when it was handed back to Gill 
by Lady Huggins. At the last meeting of the Koyal Astronomical Society 
which Gill attended, that of December, 1913, it was handed over to that 
Society, and it now hangs in their rooms in Burlington House, side by 
side with other objects of historic note. A melancholy interest attaches 
to this presentation, for it was Gill's last public appearance. And as for 
the telescope with which this photograph was taken. Lord Lindsay 
purchased it from Gill, and it is now mounted in the City Observatory, 
Edinburgh. 
In July, 1870, Gill married Isobel, second daughter of John Black,. 
Linhead, Aberdeenshire. They had been attached to one another for 
many years previous to 1870, for it was in 1865 that the lifelong lovers 
met, he then twenty-two, she sixteen years of age, but the circumstances 
of his father's business made an earlier marriage inadvisable. 
In his History of the Cape Observatory, Sir David Gill thus makes 
reference to Lady Gill : " One who shares my every thought." Those 
"who, like the writer, have enjoyed the hospitality of their beautiful home 
at the Cape Observatory know how fitting this tribute was ; how perfect 
