End is nigh for Chateau Noisy
QUESTION Why has Chateau Miranda in Belgium been left to fall into dereliction?
Chateau Miranda is on the outskirts of the village of Celles in the south-east region of Belgium, the French-speaking part known as Wallonia. It was owned by the Lords of Beaufort, who played important roles in French, Belgian and Dutch politics in the 18th and 19th centuries.
through marriage, their family name had become De Liedekerke Beaufort and their main seat was the stunning medieval castle of Veves, also near Celles.
During the French Revolution, Count Liedekerke-Beaufort and his family fled Veves and set up residence in a farm on the outskirts of the village.
Some years later, they decided to build a summer residence on the land, and in 1866 english architect edward Milner was commissioned to deliver a Scottish Gothicstyle castle, with many towers, conical roofs and other neo-Gothic details.
When Milner’s died suddenly, the project was eventually completed by the French architect Pelchner, who did so by 1907.
During World War II, the castle was at the centre of the battlefield in 1944’s Battle of the Bulge and was occupied by German troops. after the war, it was taken over by the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS) as a holiday camp and remained a facility for the use of children until 1980, gaining the nickname Chateau Noisy.
But it was too expensive to maintain and was abandoned in 1991. In 1995, a fire destroyed part of the roof and dry rot has set in. the municipality of Celles has offered to take it over and renovate it, but the family has refused, although plans to turn it into a hotel were abandoned.
On February 5, 2015, the castle was removed from the list of heritage buildings protected against possible demolition and a demolition permit was filed. this is being contested on cultural grounds.
Paul Court, Thetford, Norfolk.
QUESTION What is known of The Merry Gang, a group of 17th-century libertines?
the Restoration of the english monarchy in 1660 was seen by many as an end to Puritan grimness and dreary disapproval of pleasure. Charles II was just the monarch for that: worldly and easygoing, fond of costly foreign expeditions and self-indulgent sexual adventuring.
he particularly enjoyed the company of hard-living, witty young men, whose ability to entertain led him to grant them titles and riches. Poet and politician andrew Marvell (1621-1678) dubbed this group of aristocrats, social climbers and poets a ‘merry gang’. the Merry Gang were the most debauched people at court and flourished for about 15 years, envied by some, but frowned upon by others for a series of scandals.
It was more than their drinking and womanising that shocked many: their escapades included lewd pantomimes of buggery, genital exposure and violence, and only royal intervention saved them from reprimand or arrest.
they included the wit Charles Sedley; henry Jermyn; Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (later earl of Dorset); John Sheffield, earl of Mulgrave; playwrights Wycherley and etherege; as well as George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; and the Master of the Revels John Killegrew.
But John Wilmot, 2nd earl of Rochester, the most dissolute and reckless of them, was the leader of the gang. he looked at his world while holding a knife to its throat, with poems exposing the lewd, selfish and scheming society he saw around him, and even turned the knife on himself by describing bisexual lust and ‘pleasant’ sexual encounters from barracks and streets.
Pepys wrote it was ‘to the king’s everlasting shame to have so idle a rogue his companion’. But Rochester had a deep friendship with the king that allowed antics other men would have been imprisoned for to be readily forgiven, and despite increasingly outrageous public behaviour, he and his merry gang inspired fierce loyalty.
It all changed following a court banquet on June 25, 1675. Charles was a keen collector of astronomical items, and as Rochester and his companions rampaged into the Privy Garden at Whitehall that evening, they came across an ornate sundial set with a complex design of glass spheres, on which portraits of the royal family were engraved.
Occupying a prominent position in the garden, it was clearly of great value — but that didn’t matter to the drunken Rochester, who took exception to its size and shape.
he drew his sword and is said to have declared, ‘Kings and kingdoms will tumble down, and so shall you’ (according to another source, he cried ‘What! Dost thou stand there to f*** time?’), slashing away at the elaborate structure, leaving it in ruins.
the king disappeared for ten days and it became known he had left court in an apoplectic rage after finding his treasured sundial destroyed. Rochester’s friend henry Savile tried to intercede on his behalf, but the gang’s ringleader left court in disgrace, dying five years later with a reputation as the wickedest man in england. By the time James II came to the throne in 1685, the rest of the group had lost popularity, too.
emilie Lamplough, Trowbridge, Wilts.
QUESTION On aircraft propellers, why do some have only two blades and others have as many as eight?
FuRtheR to earlier answers, although it is not obvious, the modern jet airliner engine uses a derivative of propeller power, in the form of a ducted fan utilising multiple slim blades. the jet engine drives the fan and the air moved provides the greater part of the total thrust.
In these high-bypass engines, the remaining thrust is from the jet exhaust, and having that surrounded by the fan airflow helps towards a quieter machine.
Because of the dependency on fan airflow, speeds are limited to below the speed of sound, and the cruising speed of airliners has barely changed in 60 years.
James Anderson, Winchester, Hants.
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, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB. You can also fax them to 0141 331 4739 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.