of Seeland and Scania in the distance, helps to form very attractive scenery, which adds to the peculiar charm the island has for any one who is interested in the great memories connected with it. One can understand why Tycho calls it "Insula Venusia, vulgo Hvenna," as if it were worthy of being called after the goddess of beauty. Another name, which Tycho mentions as sometimes applied to the island by foreigners, is "Insula Scarlatina," and with this name a curious and probably apocryphal story is connected, which is told by the English traveller, Fynes Moryson (who was in Denmark in 1593), in the following words: "The Danes think this Iland of Wheen to be of such importance, as they have an idle fable, that a King of England should offer for the possession of it, as much scarlet cloth as would cover the same, with a Rose-noble at the corner of each cloth. Others tell a fable of like credit, that it was once sold to a Merchant, whom they scoffed when he came to take possession, bidding him take away the earth he had bought."[1]
The island forms one parish, and the church, which is the only building to be seen with the naked eye from the Danish coast, is situated at the north-west corner of the island, close to the edge of the cliff. As already mentioned, the island is a table-land, with steep cliffs round nearly the whole circumference, through which narrow glens in several places form the beds of small rivulets, the prettiest one being Bäkvik, on the south-east coast. At the time of Tycho Brahe the inhabitants lived in a village called Tuna (i.e., town, Scottice, "the toun"), towards the north coast; there were about forty farms, and the land was tilled in common. From the map in Blaev's Grand
- ↑ An Itinerary written by Fynes Moryson, &c., London, 1617, fol., p. 60. The story also occurs in P.D. Huetii Commentarius de Rebus ad eum pertinentibus, Amsterdam, 1718, 8vo, p. 85. Tycho merely mentions the name Scarlatina, Astr. Inst. Mech., fol. G. 2, and De Mundi Aeth. Rec. Phaen. ii. Preface.
