Garton and Perse

The New College of Garton and Perse (informally Garton and Perse) is the tenth founded college of the University of Aldergate.

The self-styled "School of Statecraft" has been dedicated since its founding to the art and science of diplomacy - to understanding the springs and levers that make the world turn.

Gapers are poised and personable, unflinchingly confident and unfailingly humble. Superior without superiority – you can’t even bring yourself to dislike them.

History
For as long as there have been GaPers, there have been GaPers insinuating themselves into positions of geopolitical influence. A few of them got famous for it - Robert Walpole was at Garton and Perse before he went off to invent the Prime Ministry - but for the most part their natural habitat is behind the scenes.

The current College Head is a good example. Kalluk Lovstrom is one of those wheels-within-wheels who operates within that twilight region that is not quite Bastardom and not quite not-Bastardom. He's probably spent his whole adult life a hair's breadth from having his tongue cut out and his eyes sewn shut.

Architecture
Garton and Perse fronts onto University Place. In counterpoint to the stone lions that swarm the face of Curmantle, the G&P gatehouse is flanked by a pair of shackled unicorns. Power and Beauty, rigidly controlled - that's the Garton and Perse way.

The college buildings, too, have a sort of refined muscularity to them. Not masculine, but masterful.

The picture is of Sutton Place in Surrey.