Lights out for our keepers

QUESTION Are any lighthouses around the British coast still manned? Lighthouses are financed by light dues levied on ships entering or leaving port, according to their tonnage. Most of the dues come from companies that are keen to keep the tolls as low as possible.

From the early eighties, the two lighthouse authorities covering england, Wales and scotland — one based at trinity house Planning Centre at harwich in essex and the other at the Northern Lighthouse Board in edinburgh — initiated modernisation programmes to phase out manned lighthouses.

Antiquated lighting systems, often driven by diesel generators, were replaced by electric and solar-powered lights, which can be monitored remotely.

on November 26, 1998, in a ceremony presided over by the Duke of edinburgh, the North Foreland Lighthouse in Kent became the last lighthouse in Britain to be automated. the last one in scotland had been Fair isle south Lighthouse on March 31, 1998. Jim Pickering, Frome, Somerset.

QUESTION What is known about Sir Thomas Benger, Master of the Revels at Elizabeth I’s court? How did he get his title and position? the Master of the Revels was deputy to the Lord Chamberlain and headed the Revels office, the department of the Royal household responsible for the co-ordination of theatrical entertainment at court from tudor times until the Licensing Act of 1737.

the most important type of revelry was the mask (masque), a lavish dramatic entertainment, often in verse, performed by masked players representing mythological or allegorical figures.

in 1545, in the reign of henry Viii, sir thomas Cawarden became master for life, bringing extra importance to the office, and thomas Benger was his successor.

From the 17th century, the Master of Revels became the official issuer of licences to theatres and theatrical companies, and the censor of publicly performed plays. Benger was born around Switch-over: The 1998 ceremony to automate North Foreland Lighthouse 1520, and not much is known of his family other than they were minor gentry from Wiltshire, connected to the powerful Paulet family.

it was probably the patronage of William Paulet ( died 1572), earl of Wiltshire, Marquess of Winchester and Lord treasurer, that secured Benger the position of auditor to Princess elizabeth’s court at hatfield in 1548.

Benger successfully negotiated the political turmoil — Northumberland’s fall, Jane grey’s accession and Mary’s accession — following the death of edward Vi in 1553 and was knighted the day after Mary’s coronation.

the following year, he was caught up in the turmoil that followed thomas Wyatt’s rebellion against Mary’s determination to marry the Roman Catholic Philip of spain. Benger was accused of witchcraft and consorting with the famous tudor magician John Dee.

on June 7, Mary appointed officials for ‘the examination of Benger, Carie, Die and Felde and of all other towched in those matters of conjuring or witchecrafte’.

Benger’s fortunes changed with elizabeth’s accession. he received a pardon for all ‘treasons, felonies and other offences’, and in 1560 was appointed Master of the Revels.

he produced six masks a year, often to entertain elizabeth’s many suitors. his masks had titles such as the Mask of Barbarians, the Mask of Patriarchs And italian Women, the Mask of the satyrs, the Mask of Nusquams (allegorical figures) and the Mask of the Clowns.

Benger is credited with introducing classical themes to the court. his great double Mask of Actaeon And his hunters And Diana And her Nymphs was hailed a triumph. No expense was spared on costumes and set design: Diana was accompanied by six nymph huntresses dressed in cloth of silver and attended by eight torchbearers costumed as maidens in long garments of purple satin.

the set included a working fountain, which served for Diana’s bathing pool.

Benger’s extravagance was a problem; he found the financial burden of the office too much to bear and, in his will, he made a special plea to the Queen as ‘one of the last of the poor flock of hatfield’ to pay off his debts when he died as ‘the charges for making of masks came never to so little a sum as they do this year’.

he was married twice and died in 1572. he lived most of his life in great Milton. Angus Rey, Plymouth, Devon.

QUESTION What is the origin of the word ‘geek’? the word can be traced back to the 16th century from the Dutch gek, meaning a fool or idiot. taken to America by early Dutch immigrants, it eventually re-emerged there in the 19th century in u.s. slang as ‘geek’, meaning a simpleton, socially inept, boring or studious.

so, even then, it was beginning to acquire its modern meaning. Roger Gough, Bristol.

QUESTION A recent episode of Endeavour had a Mary Whitehouse character saying her famous line: ‘Last night I watched a show on television, and it was the dirtiest show I had ever seen’. What was this show? FURTHER to the earlier answer, Mary Whitehouse with Norah and Basil Buckland were motivated by their membership of the international religious organisation MRA — Moral Re-Armament — of which my father was a member and a close friend of the Bucklands.

Whitehouse never made publicly known her membership of this organisation.

i was brought up with MRA ethics, which were summed up by their four tenets of Absolute honesty, Absolute Purity, Absolute Love and Absolute unselfishness. Adhering to these tenets was, of course, an Absolute impossibility.

Brian Harvey, Tean, Staffs.

IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT; fax them to 01952 780111 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.