should cease.[1] If Tycho had not already commenced his preparations for leaving Hveen, he did so at once after this last blow. Though certainly not a poor man (for he was able six months later to invest 10,000 daler, or about £2200, a very considerable sum at that time), he would have been unable in future to maintain a large staff of observers, printers, and other assistants; the extensive buildings would require some outlay to keep them in repair, and the idea of retrenching could not be pleasant to him.[2]
These considerations, added to the natural feeling of disgust at the want of appreciation he had met with, and the wish again to enjoy the society of congenial minds, overcame the regret he must have felt at leaving the happy home where he had lived for fully twenty years, the buildings he had raised, and which had been the wonder of the age, and the hitherto obscure little island on which he had conferred imperishable fame. The observations, which had been progressing as usual, were discontinued on the 15th March (on which day the last ones, of the sun, moon, and Jupiter, were recorded), and the dismantling of the instruments, and the removal of these and other property to his house at Copenhagen, were rapidly proceeded with. Under the 21st March we read in the Meteorological Diary: "We catalogued all the Squire's books;" and we can picture to ourselves the desolation which soon reigned in the hitherto crowded library and observatories.
But Tycho was not allowed to leave Hveen without further annoyance. When the peasants on the island found that their master was not in favour at court, they drew up
- ↑ See Tycho's account, "De occasione interruptarum observationum et discessus mei," Barretti, Hist. Coel., p. 801. The date is given in Friis, Tyge Brahe, p. 229.
- ↑ In addition to Hveen, he still held the prebend of Roskilde and the eleven farms in Scania; the rent from the latter was barely 200 daler a year (Weistritz, i. p. 170).
