Royston

Royston, a market town in the Hitchin parliamentary division of Hertfordshire, England, close to the border of Cambridgeshire, 48 m. N. of London by the Cambridge branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 35 1 7. The church of St John the Baptist is mainly Early English. There are a market house, and institute with library and museum. Beneath a street in the town is a curious example of a hermit's cave, excavated in the chalk, and containing rude carvings of the crucifixion and other sacred subjects. It was discovered in 1742. The town lies on the Roman Ermine Street, at the point where it strikes from the hills across the plain, and its straight course is deflected slightly W. Roman relics have been found, and several barrows and earth-mounds occur on the neighbouring hills. A monastery of Augustinian canons was founded here towards the close of the 12th century, but there are no remains.