204 Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
Gill has often spoken to me of his first impressions of the Cape, of the 
imperishable memory the serene beauty of the day, of the sky, of the sea, 
of the mountains enriched him with. He was aye a lover of beautiful 
things, a beautiful home, beautiful surroundings ; and the serene, stately 
beauty of the Cape Peninsula appealed to him from the first day his eyes 
lighted on it. Africa woo'd him, as it has woo'd and won many another, 
and he never faltered in his allegiance to her conquest, just as he never 
lost faith in her future. He was, during all the days he spent in this land, 
a loyal South African. 
It is difficult to realize what the observatory was like thirty-six years 
ago. The writer remembers it in the late 'eighties, but by that time Gill 
had redeemed it from dreariness and desolation. Also by that time there 
were signs of a growing suburb round the then countryside railway 
station. 
When Gill arrived the grounds were a wilderness and the instruments 
out of date. The comforts of life w^ere meagre and cheerless, and Cape 
Town seemed a long way off. Under Stone's management of the Cape 
Observatory no additions were made to the instrumental equipment, 
no improvements to the buildings or to the amenities of the observatory 
and its surroundings. Only a rough track, impassable in wet weather, 
led from the station to the observatory. Within the broken-down 
entrance gate, the main avenue was a footpath through a tangle of weeds. 
A few trees planted by Lady Maclear made the general desolation even 
more marked. 
Then the small equipment at the disposal of Gill's predecessors^ 
Henderson, Maclear, and Stone, w^as in a state of wretched repair. The 
micrometer screws of the transit circle were worn and affected by serious 
errors ; pivot wheels rusted on their bearings ; the non-reversibility of 
the instrument made it unreliable for fundamental observations. If any 
one will take the trouble to chart down the residuals (0-M) of any of 
the stars observed by Maclear during the greater part of the year, they 
will have abundant testimony to the faultiness of this standard instru- 
ment. After due allowance is made for latitude variation, change in 
level due to seasonal causes, and other known modifications, there still 
remain certain discordances which only faulty readings can explain. That 
Henderson, Maclear, and Stone should have been able to secure such 
a mass of reliable and valuable observations is due to their skill as 
observers or reducers. 
No sooner did Gill enter upon his office than he set himself to 
raise the character and improve the equipment of the observatory. 
He is reported to have said that he would not rest until he had brought 
it into the first rank of observatories. His first endeavour was to 
improve his surroundings. With this end in view he invited Sir 
