The Secret of the Unicorn Rackham's looks and costumes were also inspired by the character, Lerouge, who appears in C. S. Forester's novel, "The Captain from Connecticut", and by the 17th-century French buccaneer Daniel Montbars. The name of Marlinspike Hall— in French—was based upon the name of the real Belgian town, Sart-Moulin. The actual design of the building was based upon the Château de Cheverny, albeit with the two outer wings removed. In introducing Francis Haddock to the story, Hergé made Captain Haddock the only character in the series (except Jolyon Wagg, introduced later) to have a family and an ancestry. "The Secret of the
Tintin (character) admitted that he did not take Tintin seriously in the early "Adventures", explaining simply that he "put the character to the test" and that Tintin was simply created "as a joke between friends, forgotten the next day." Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters noted that throughout the early "Adventures", Tintin was "supremely Belgian" in his characteristics, a view echoed by biographer Pierre Assouline, who deemed all of the protagonists of the early "Adventures" "very Belgian". Hergé himself commented: "my early works are books by a young Belgian filled with the prejudices and ideas of a Catholic, they are books that could have