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) 3517 . 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 .