Above the entrance to the new house at Scotney Castle, Kent, England, is inscribed the Latin motto of the Hussey family - Vix Ea Nostra Voco - which translates as "I scarcely call these things our own".

Beneath this is the further inscription in archaic English: "Health and happinesse attende/The coming and the parting ffrende".

Tags:   Scotney Castle Latin motto vix ea nostra voco Kent Hussey

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View of the rear of the new house at Scotney Castle, near Lamberhurst, Kent, England. The new house was constructed between 1835 and 1843 for Edward Hussey.

On the left hand ledge of the fountain you can see a stone carving of a cat reaching its paw down towards the water, where beneath the surface there is a stone carving of a fish. This was probably created for the final resident of the castle, Betty Hussey, who was hugely fond of cats. (There are several cat pictures and memorabilia in the house itself.)

Tags:   Scotney Castle Lamberhurst Kent fountain National Trust

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View of the ruined old castle buildings of Scotney Castle near Lamberhurst, Kent, England. Looking across the moat you see the one remaining tower and the ruined walls of what was originally a four-turreted 14th century castle. It was allowed to go to ruin while a newer house was built further up the hillside in the 19th century.

Tags:   castle turret Scotney Castle ruins moat Kent Lamberhurst

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Sunlit Japanese anemone flowers in the foreground, while in the background are purple clematis surrounding a window of the ruins of the old Scotney Castle near Lamberhurst, Kent, England.

Tags:   clematis pink purple Scotney Castle National Trust anemone Japanese anemone

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The Victorian ice house at Scotney Castle near Lamberhurst, Kent, England. This was used to store ice before the invention of the refrigerator. Beneath the thatched exterior there is a large brick basin dug down into the ground which would have insulated the ice from the warmth outside.

It is Grade II listed by English Heritage and their description reads: "Ice house. Circa 1840. Brick lined chamber, with timber framed housing thatched with fir twigs and with weather boarded porch. The standing building a simple conical fern with central moulded post projecting at apex and with gabled porch to east with boarded door. Ice chamber sloping inwards to base."

Tags:   icehouse Scotney Castle thatch Kent Lamberhurst National Trust

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