ROYSTON, (Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire) supposed to have been a Roman T. from the Roman coins dug up near it, was, as
it is said, so called from a stone cross erected in the highway by Royes Css. of Norfolk in the R. of K. Stephen; of which
some token yet remains by the inn, where the 2 roads meet. It is a pretty T. with very good inns, partly in Hartfordshire,
and partly in Cambridgeshire, 33 cm. 38 mm. from London. Rich. I. made it a Mt.-T. and granted it a Fair all Whitsun-week.
In the R. of Hen. IV. it was almost burnt down. Such was the plenty of corn one year in the R. of Henry VI. that the best
wheat was sold for three half-pence the bushel; which in that of Q. Eliz. rose to 8 s. a bushel. Its Mt. which is
considerable for barley, malt, &c. is on W. Fairs Ash-W. the W. in Whit-week, June 28, July 7 and 25. That of July 7 was
granted by Hen. III. It had once a mon. which was sold at the Ref. for 1761 l. to Rob. Chester; in whose family the manor
did very lately, if it does not still, remain. It had also a hos. Its Ch. which has several fine monuments, was purchased
at the Diss. by the inh. and made parochial. A school was erected here in 1716 by contribution of the T. and adjacent
parts. The rectory here is of great value, and generally conferred on some person of note, who is Ld. of the manor. When
its Ch. was made parochial, here were five ps. reduced into one. Upon almost every eminence about this T. especially on
the E. side of it by the Ickening-Street, there is a burrow. There is a sort of crows here, that have some white about
their breast and wings, different from other crows. The T. became populous, on fixing the post-road thro' it, which before
ran thro' Barkway to Biggleswade. This T. suffered greatly by a fire, Aug. 22, 1747. The soil for 2 ms. either to or from
the T. is chalky. As for the T. it stands in 5 ps. viz. Therfield and Berkway in this Co. and Melbourn, Kneesworth, and
Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire.