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C0XE 5 S TRAVELS IN DENMARK.
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powder-mill, wherein only twenty are generally ufed, and beats only ten pounds ofpowder with each mortar. The expence of copper mortars is confiderable, as eachcolls 20I.: but the mills are lefs liable to accident, and if blown up, the mortars are againrecovered.
On taking leave, the general preflfed us much to dine with him ; but we excufed our-felves, being under the neceffity of reaching Elfinore, and engaged to dine the nextday with Mr. De Conig. In our way to Elfinore, we Hopped at a fmall village, andexpefled to find but fcanty fare for our dinner ; but were agreeably furprized at feeingthe table covered with fome cold provifion, and four bottles of tokay, which the generalhad fecretly ordered his houfekeeper to deliver to our fervants.
Chap. VII .—IJland of Huen.—Memoirs of Tycho Brahe .
FOR the purpofe of vifiting the fmall ifle of Huen, celebrated for the refidence ofTycho Brahe , we embarked at See Lull on board a five-oared boat belonging to CountShimmelman, and landed in two hours and an half.
Huen lies fix Englilh miles from the coall of Zealand, and three from that of Swe-den, nine from Elfinore, and fourteen from Copenhagen . It formerly belonged to theDanes, but was ceded to the Swedes at the peace of Rofchild in 1658.
This little ifland is fix miles in circumference, contains a fcattered village, one church,which is a pretty objedl on the north-well coall, about fifty houfes, and tivo hundredand fifty inhabitants. It produces hay, and every fpecies of corn, more than fufficientfor interior confumption. The inhabitants maintain two hundred horfes, one hundredand fifty cows, four hundred Iheep, and the fame number of fwine. The ifland pays, inquit-rent and taxes, to the King, about 150I.
We landed on the fouth-well part in a fmall bay, juft below the place where a llream,fupplied by numerous pools and filh-ponds, falls into the fea. We afcended the fhore,which is cloathed with fhort herbage, eroded the llream, and paflfed over a gently wavingfurface gradually Hoping towards the fea, and walked a mile to a farm-houfe (landing inthe middle of the ifland, inhabited by Mr. Schaw, a Swedilh gentleman, to whom thegreater part of the ifland belongs. He lives here in fummer, but in winter refides atLandfcrona. This dwelling is the fame as exilted in Tycho Brahe ’s time, and was thefarm-houfe belonging to his ellate. ' A guide, whom we obtained from Mr. Schaw,conduced us to the remains of Tycho ’s manfion, which are near the houfe, and con-fill of little more than a mound of earth which inclofed the garden, and two pits, thefites of his manfion and obfervatory. From this delightful fpot, the highelt point in theifland, we enjoyed a noble profpedl; on one fide, the coall of Zealand , ftretching fromCopenhagen to Elfinore; the Ihores gently Hoping, embrowned to the margin of thewater with rich wood, and beautifully fprinkled with villages and villas; on the otherfide, we traced the rocky and almoft naked cliffs of Sweden , ornamented with the dis-tant fpires of Landfcrona, Lund, Malmoe, and Helfingborg, and to the north a bound-lefs expanfe of ocean, its undulating furface covered with innumerable velfels failing inall directions. A few anecdotes of the Danilh aftronomer, who has rendered this littleifland remarkable in the hiltory of literature, will not perhaps be unacceptable to thereader *.
* For the life of Brahe , I hare confulted chiefly GaiTendus’s Equitis Dani Tychonis Brahe AflronorumCoryphtei vita ; Joffenus de vita et jnor. Tych. Bra , Orat. Funebris; and Hoffman’s Portraits Hift. desHommes Illuf. de Danneraarc, article Brahe .