To the members of the Astronomical Society

Gentlemen

It will afford me much pleasure if you will accept the telescope and celestial globe of the late Sir Adam Wilson as it was his express wish that it should be offered to this astronomical society in which he took so much interest.

I remain Gentlemen
Very Sincerely Yours

E. Wilson

Spadina Crescent
May 4th.

For more on the Wilson gift, see R.A. Rosenfeld, Astronomical Art and Artifact: A Tale of Two Globes, JRASC 103, 1 (2009), 28-31, and R.A. Rosenfeld, The Affair of the Sir Adam Wilson Telescope, Societal Negligence, and the Damning Miller Report, JRASC 105, 5 (2011), 211-213. The Society still possesses Sir Adams celestial globe, but his telescope seems to have fallen prey to the ravages of time, which in this case came in the guise of Societal neglect and incompetence, to judge from A.F. Miller's report of 1901. It's a good thing that memory of this ignoble incident seems to have faded with the advent of the Great War, else it could have adversely affected subsequent donations. There is doubtless a lesson here.