Sir James South was a medical man who acquired considerable wealth early in life, and then devoted himself with great assiduity to astronomy. He became an expert observer, and in conjunction with Sir John Herschel formed a series of double star measures that obtained much fame. Honours flowed in upon South; he received a pension and a knighthood; and he prepared for further astronomical work. His first care was to procure a superior telescope, and from Cauchoix, a French optician of renown, he procured an object-glass 12 inches in diameter, and possessing great optical perfection. For this lens, or rather pair of lenses, he paid either £800 or £1,000. South returned with this prize to his observatory at Campden Hill, Kensington, and commenced to have the mounting executed in a manner befitting the optical excellence of the lens. Brunel designed the revolving dome; it was made of mahogany, and cost, I believe, £2,000; and inside this building the eminent firm of Troughton & Simms were called upon to erect the telescope. But sad troubles followed, of which an entertaining account is given in De Morgan’s Life (p. 61), and the mounting was a dismal failure. Sir James South, at all events in the later part of his career, dearly loved a fray. He commissioned a friend to bear a hostile message to a distinguished scientific contemporary. The duel never came off. Perhaps, even if it had, the results might not have been sanguinary, for it had been suggested that the two astronomers would, of course, have been placed at telescopic distances apart. But to those to whom he was attached his loyalty and devotion were unbounded; his purse and his influence were alike at their disposal. To these characteristics of South we owe the great equatorial telescope now at Dunsink Observatory. [Illustration: SOUTH EQUATORIAL, DUNSINK.] The precious object-glass remained in his possession for about thirty years, until such time as the late Earl of Rosse was installed as Chancellor of the University. The Earl was one of Sir James’ warm friends, and he celebrated the occasion by presenting the great object-glass to the University of Dublin. The date of the gift is 17th February, 1863.