The Lucubrations of his Leisure Hours: William Roy's Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain 1793

Abstract

This paper traces the early history of Roy's interest in Roman military antiquities in the 1750s and looks at the plans of Roman forts and camps which he made at that time, and discusses a selection of the maps which form the engraved plates of the published work. A principal conclusion is that Macdonald's assertion (1917) that the Society of Antiquaries of London's manuscript set of Roy's plans is by Roy himself, is in error, and that these plans were made instead by a Board of Ordnance draftsman.