was to receive even more exalted visitors from abroad during the last years of his residence at Hveen.
It is needless to say that Danish visitors frequently crossed over the Sound to the little island which had so suddenly become famous. Both learned and unlearned men were ready to pay court to the great astronomer who had raised a beautiful building full of curious apparatus on the lonely island. Though this spot had expressly been selected for his residence in order that Tycho might undisturbedly devote himself to the studies he loved, he had probably no objection now and then to receive as his guests even some of those who had in former days sneered at his scientific tastes,[1] and not a few among the Danish visitors were men of learning. Among those who paid repeated visits was Tycho's former tutor and his friend through life, Anders Sörensen Vedel, who was now royal historiographer, and lived at Ribe in Jutland, as a canon of the cathedral there. He was on a tour through Denmark to collect topographical and other information for his Danish history, when he arrived at Hveen on the 13th June 1586. He must have stayed there some weeks, as he was still with Tycho when a stately little fleet on the 27th June approached the island from Seeland with Queen Sophia on board. The queen was a daughter of Duke Ulrich of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, and was an able and accomplished lady. Tycho's mother, Beate Bille, acted as her Mistress of the Robes (to which post she was regularly appointed in 1592 after the death of his aunt and foster-mother, Inger Oxe), and the queen was therefore interested beforehand in Tycho and his work. She was
- ↑ Fortunately for him, Tycho lived before the age of telescopes, so he was not annoyed by constant requests "to see the moon" or to "take an observation through the big telescope."
he had studied at Wittenberg during the persecution of the Protestants by Queen Mary. Perhaps he is alluded to in the Meteorol. Diary, 9th July 1588, "Angli aderant."
