Page:Tycho brahe.djvu/132

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108
TYCHO BRAHE.

own workshop, which was situated close to the servants' house, about 100 feet to the west.[1]

Tycho would scarcely have been able to construct these magnificent instruments if he had not continually been provided with new sources of income through the liberality of his royal patron. We have seen that Tycho, from February 1576 enjoyed an annual pension of 500 daler (£ 114). In addition to this, the king granted him on the 28th August 1577 the manor of Kullagaard, in Scania, to be held by him during the king's pleasure. Kullagaard is situated near the north-western extremity of Scania, on the mountain of Kullen, which forms a steep promontory in the Kattegat. The king's letter stated expressly that Tycho Brahe should not, like his predecessor, be bound to keep the lighthouse of Kullen in order; but apparently the king soon found that this exemption was a mistake, and already on the 18th October 1577 a second royal letter was issued, in which it was stated that as the late holder of the benefice had received it for the purpose of keeping the light going, in order that seafaring men should have no cause for complaint, the same should be done by Tycho, if he wished to continue to hold the manor.[2] This obligation was apparently not to the taste of Tycho; at least he must have been negligent in seeing that the light was regularly attended to, for already in the autumn of 1579 the governor of Helsingborg Castle was ordered to take possession of Kullagaard manor, in order to keep the lighthouse properly attended to, as complaints had frequently been made about it. As Tycho, however, begged to be allowed to keep the manor, on the plea that he had no other place from which to get fuel for Uraniborg, the king again granted him the manor on the 13th November 1579, on condition that the light was regularly lighted.[3] In May

  1. In 1577 Tycho had employed a smith at Heridsvad, but he was not able for the work. T. B. et Doct. Vir. Epist., p. 42.
  2. Friis, Tyge Brahe, pp. 80-81.
  3. Ibid., p. 96.