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Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
towns, either as an honoured member of their learned societies or as a 
delegate of some international congress. He was the senior and most 
influential member of the Astrographic Convention ; he was the British 
representative on the International Geodetic Association ; he served on 
the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and on the resignation 
of Lord Cromer he was elected President of the Eesearch Defence Society. 
The seven years of his relief from work were very happy years. He 
had taken up house in De Vere Gardens, and there the soul-deep, old- 
fashioned gracious hospitality so manifested itself that his home became 
the resting-place for folk kin to him in thought and purpose. 
He found time also to write, and many articles of his, during these 
•evening years, are scattered over the principal English, French, and 
German magazines. He wrote and spoke French with ease, and not a 
few of his more important contributions are in this language. 
Though removed from intimate participation in the many develop- 
ments of observational work, as far as he possibly could he kept himself 
in touch with all the activities of the day, either by letter or by conversa- 
tion, mainly the former, and his letters always had a winsomeness, a 
charm, an inspiring heartiness that few letters possess. Some of us 
cannot reveal how his letters have helped us through the years. 
And the passage of the days, as they moved on to the dusk of evening- 
time, did not dull his capacity to understand or his willingness to aid. 
He was as mentally alert at the close of his life, as responsive to the 
newer movements and methods of science as when he was a young man 
at the opening time of his brilliant and fruitful career. 
For the most part, throughout this monograph, we have spoken of 
him as a great creative astronomer. But he was more than a mere 
observer. He had in no mean measure literary power and grace. 
He always wrote lucidly, simply, and with dignity. There was no 
mistaking what he meant. He had, like all great thinkers, the 
faculty of using words sparingly, but ever fittingly and correctly. In all 
his works this is evident, but most of all in his last production, a " History 
of the Cape Observatory." There is something very characteristic in 
this big volume. It is indeed an epitome of the history and expression 
of his life. The breadth of view is there, the accurate consideration of 
data is there, the consummate knowledge of instruments is there, also 
most marvellous skill in drawing and draughtsmanship. 
It was issued from the press in the middle of 1913, and very soon after 
Gill sought refuge in Scotland with old friends. Here he enjoyed a 
pleasant holiday, but the strain of producing a work so comprehensive 
and so laborious — a literary survey, a mathematical work, a treatise on 
instruments — must have weakened him considerably, and made the 
entrance of disease a very easy matter. 
