Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Each Horsham block has a central door facing The Avenue and above this door is a latin motto. Is there a list of them all somewhere, perhaps in one of the books about Housey? But does anyone remember the wording of some of them? Were they all from one source, perhaps the words of a single author? It is less likely that anyone knows who decided they should be there; the Headmaster, the Architect, or someone else?

I think they all related to Time in some fashion. For Maine it was Dum Spectas Fugit (while you watch it flies)

The Barnes motto related to time too. It’s the only one I can recall and it’s remembered for a strange reason. The motto’s understandable, but I can’t translate it. The words are, “Tempus fugit, manet res” and it means something like, “Time moves forward continuously, but many things remain unchanged”. However that doesn’t translate it and I have never come across a satisfactory English translation. Literally it means, “Time flies/flees, the thing remains”. What’s its origin?

Someone please suggest a decent translation, for my Latin stopped at O level?

These were discussed in the course of this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1723&hilit=Latin+motto

A complete list of the block mottoes was given by someone at the bottom of page 6.

As they were part of the sundial, they were conventional sundial mottoes.

Thank you for that link Michael. I have just spent a nostalgic half hour or so browsing through that thread. It made me very aware of how much I miss Kerren's input on all things Hertford-historical!

michael scuffil wrote:These were discussed in the course of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1723&hilit=Latin+motto

Thanks very much. Chris