Sedgewick college-
My fellow
Fegs, Today, while innocently searching the Web - looking for something totally unrelated - I stumbled across what may be the Rosetta Stone of the Feg conspiracy, recently unearthed by members of this very mailing list. As we all know, Robyn started his musical career and formed the his band, The Soft Boys, in the University town of Cambridge, England. Indeed I myself was witness to some of those early events. But in all the time I spent there (mostly in an alcoholic haze, I will admit) I never once even suspected the presence of a certain "Sedgewick College". The following text is taken from the official history of the College -only now made available to the public, and the story of piscine fixation, English eccentricity and the Welsh language -- when linked with the exact geographic location of the birth of Robyn's music is far too much to be a co-incidence. Incredulity becomes even too mild a term when we ask from which academic establishment did that ruffian known to us as "Professor Fane" receive his Doctorate? If I am not mistaken, I think you will find it to be none other than Sedgewick College, Cambridge. (1977, I think - the year of the first Soft Boys release. Another coincidence? I think not.) And who is this Feg known to us as "Gary" - a relative of Sir George Gareth Graham Sedgewick perchance? A plant? Stool Pidgeon? (And also note: "Gareth" ..a well known Welsh name.) If you value your sanity - and enjoy the work of Hitchcock, Peake,Python et. al., I strongly recommend pointing your browser to: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/users/grc21/sedgewck/sedgwck.htm For the browser impoverished I reproduced a few choice excerpts below:
What is now Sedgewick College, Cambridge, began its life in 1538 as the College of St Anthony and St Theresa and All Angels and God. It was founded by Vasco da Caldo Verde, a Portuguese sea captain who, having set sail for Madeira, lost consciousness in a storm and came to, days later, drifting in the tranquil waters of the Cam, [He] threw himself upon the mercy of the academics, whose initial suspicion evaporated when they discovered his cargo. Caldo Verde had been transporting eight hundred barrels of Port Wine, and furthermore had, by the means of his arrival, evaded the Customs and Excise.[...] Speaking no English, Caldo Verde was readily assimilated into the academic community and decided to set up a College, there being very little else to do. The original College statutes made provision for a Master, Pro-Vice-Master and seventeen Fellows; fifty Poor Scholars, [...] and several Officers including the Dean, the Bursar and the Special Haddock Pre-Proctor. This last post, generally believed unique to the College,was established, according to the statutes, "to insureÖ that the Scoulars placed under tutelage herin, are most adequateley emprovided for in of the Fysche that they doe require in our Lyfe this journeye".[...snip...] The many gifts
and provisions donated to the College by Sedgewick included a brand
new Fishery, a hundred-foot-high statue of himself erected in the central
court, and the famous Tower Tower, an almost unique architectural piece
which can only be described as a tower surmounted by a tower. The renowned
wit and social reformer, the Reverend Sydney Smith is said to have remarked:
"On seeing this feature Ö one would find it curiously difficult
to determine Ö where the Tower ends, and the Tower begins."
[...snip...]A net exporter only of freshwater sea-bass, the College gained some small advantage by its non-abolition of slavery, but was ultimately forced into rather more desperate measures in securing its economic survival: the notorious Jirrem's Light was attached to the Master's Lodge for the purpose of luring boats on the Cam, half a mile away, onto the treacherous and jagged bank, at which point armed Fellows would overpower the crews and make off with whatever they could find on board.[...snip...] SFSU set up a number of facilities run by and for students, including a Welsh Interest Noticeboard, the razor-blade exchange scheme, a weekly discothËque and the Shelley-Devoto Room ... What is the exact connection between Robyn and Sedgewick College? Could this in fact be his Alma Mater? If so, why would this be such a closely held secret? Is the college demanding money - or worse - from its alumni in order to secure its future in academe (not to mention reviving the flagging fishery business)? I have said enough.
Be watchful. Trust no-one. ~N Back to de ole Posse Page |
