COXli’s TRAVELS IN DENMARK.

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Tycho, tranfported at this inftance of his fovereign’s liberality, did not hefitate accept-ln g the offer. He repaired to the ifle of Huen, and on the 8th of Auguft, 1576, wasprefent at laying the firft ftone of a magnificent houfe, which he afterwards called Ura-nienburgh, or the Caftle of the Heavens. It was a building of fixty feet fquare, con-taining a large fuite of apartments, an obfervatory, and a fubterraneous laboratory ; andalthough the King fuppiied 1 00,000 * rix-dollars, Tycho Brahe did not expend lefs thanthe fame fum. He afterwards conftrudled a detached building for his obfervatory,■which he called Stiernberg, or the Mountain of the Stars f.

In this retreat Tycho Brahe pafled twenty years, and greatly improved the fcience ofaftronomy by the diligence and exactnefs of his obfervations. He maintained feveralfcholars for the purpofe of inftrudfing them in geometry and aftronomy; fome of whomwere fent at the expence of the King ; others, who voluntarily offered thetnfelves, hedeceived and fupported at his own charge.

He did not, however, pafs the life of an anchorite or a reclufe ; on the contrary, helived in a fumptuous manner, kept an open houfe with unbounded hofpitality, enter-tained and received all perfons, who flocked in crowds to vifit the ifland, and pay theirEefpccls to an aftronomer of his renown.

. During his refidence in this ifland, he received numerous vifits from perfons of thehigheft rank, particularly from Ulric Duke of Mecldenburgh, in company with hisdaughter Sophia Queen of Denmark; William, Landgrave of Heffe Caffel, whofe cor-refpondence with Brahe on aftronomical fubjects has been given to the public, and whohad fhewn himfelf a conffant patron to the Danifh aftronomer.

In 1590 Tycho was honoured with a vifit from James King of Scotland, afterwardsKing of England, when that monarch repaired to the court of Copenhagen to concludehis marriage with the Princefs Anne, and remained eight days at Uranienburgh. Onretiring, the King prefented the aftronomer with a magnificent prefent, and afterwardsaccompanied his royal licence for the publication of his works, with this flattering tefti-niony of his abilities and learning: “ Nor am I acquainted with thefe things from the

relation of others, or from a mere perufal of your works ; but I have feen them withniy own eyes, and heard them with my own ears, in your refidence at Uranienburgh,during the various learned and agreeable converfations which I there held with you,which even now affedt my mind to fuch a degree, that it is difficult to decide, whether Irecoiled!; them with greater pleafure or admiration ; as I now willingly teftify by this li-cence to prefent and future generations, &c.”

His Majefty alfo compofed, in honour of the Danifh aftronomer, fome Latin verfes,Wore expreffive of efteetn and admiration, than remarkable for elaffic elegance.

In 1592 Tycho was honoured with a vifit from his own fovereign, Chriftian the Fourth,Aen in the fifteenth year of his age, who continued fome days at Uranienburgh. TheKing fhewed great curiofity in examining the aftronomical and chymical apparatus, ex-prefled the higheft: fatisfadtian in receiving explanations, propofed various queftions onieveral points of mathematics and mechanics, to which His Majefty was attached, andparticularly on the principles of fortification, and the conftrudtion of fhips. He wasalfo highly delighted with a gilt tin globe, which reprefented the face of the heavens,

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t A plan of the ifland, and a curious engraving of ihefe buildings and of the garden, is to be found innrtraits Hilloriques des Hommes illuftres de Dannemarc, under the article Tycho Brahe . An engraving? Uranienburgh is inferted in the Gentleman’s Magazine for November 1789, with explanations exactlyAmilar to the engravings and explanations in the Portraits Hiftoriques, excepting that Stiernberg is

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and