Rich and poor united to do honour
to the memory of the great man, who had endeared himself to them by
his virtues as by his genius.
The crown-prince followed the coffin,
and the people of Copenhagen stood in two long rows, and uncovered
their heads as the coffin of the sculptor was carried past. The
king himself took part in the solemnity. At the time of his decease
Thorwaldsen had completed his seventy-second year. - ED.
{16} Tycho de Brahe was a distinguished astronomer, who lived
between 1546 and 1601. He was a native of Denmark. His whole life
may be said to have been devoted to astronomy. A small work that he
published when a young man brought him under the notice of the King
of Denmark, with whose assistance he constructed, on the small
island of Hulln, a few miles north of Copenhagen, the celebrated
Observatory of Uranienburg. Here, seated in "the ancient chair"
referred to in the text, and surrounded by numerous assistants, he
directed for seventeen years a series of observations, that have
been found extremely accurate and useful. On the death of his
patron he retired to Prague in Bohemia, where he was employed by
Rodolph II. then Emperor of Germany. Here he was assisted by the
great Kepler, who, on Tycho's death in 1601, succeeded him. - ED.
{17} The fisheries of Iceland have been very valuable, and indeed
the chief source of the commerce of the country ever since it was
discovered. The fish chiefly caught are cod and the tusk or cat-
fish. They are exported in large quantities, cured in various ways.
Since the discovery of Newfoundland, however, the fisheries of
Iceland have lost much of their importance. So early as 1415, the
English sent fishing vessels to the Icelandic coast, and the sailors
who were on board, it would appear, behaved so badly to the natives
that Henry V. had to make some compensation to the King of Denmark
for their conduct. The greatest number of fishing vessels from
England that ever visited Iceland was during the reign of James I.,
whose marriage with the sister of the Danish king might probably
make England at the time the most favoured nation. It was in his
time that an English pirate, "Gentleman John," as he was called,
committed great ravages in Iceland, for which James had afterwards
to make compensation. The chief markets for the fish are in the
Catholic countries of Europe. In the seventeenth century, a great
traffic in fish was carried on between Iceland and Spain. - ED.
{18} The dues charged by the Danish Government on all vessels
passing through the Sound have been levied since 1348, and therefore
enjoy a prescriptive right of more than five hundred years. They
bring to the Danish Government a yearly revenue of about a quarter
of a million; and, in consideration of the dues, the Government has
to support certain lighthouses, and otherwise to render safe and
easy the navigation of this great entrance to the Baltic.
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