Britain. There was particular interest in items such as coins and inscriptions, which themselves provided texts that could be read and interpreted to supplement the meager classical sources.

The documentation of the Roman occupation of Britain also led to the widespread, if generally misguided, popular trend to identify visible earthwork sites generally as “Roman camps” or, in particular, as a “Caesar’s camp.” Although some of the speculations of the early writers like william camden (1551–1623) or william stukeley (1687–1765) are now difficult to reconcile with the evidence, others produced syntheses of information of enduring value. Of particular note is the volume by John Horsley (ca. 1684–1732) entitled Britannia Romana (1732) as it first put the study of Hadrian’s Wall on a systematic footing. Equally, the cartographic work undertaken by General William Roy (1726–1790), the founder of the Ordnance Survey who mapped the length of both Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall, provided detailed scale plans of the forts that are truly remarkable. This survey, published after Roy’s death as The Military Antiquities of the Romans in Northern Britain (1793), is perhaps the earliest example of a full-scale geographical treatment of a major monument. It certainly illustrates a continuing tradition of modern soldiers taking an active interest in the archaeology of the Roman army.

The eighteenth-century growth of interest in the classical world was stimulated by an increasing trend to travel to Italy and beyond. Ideas brought back from “the grand tour” encouraged a widespread gentlemanly interest in the antiquities of Britain, including the continuing trend to attempt to rediscover sites named in ancient texts.

With the restrictions on travel imposed by the Napoleonic Wars, this interest increasingly turned to the active exploration of sites connected with the Roman occupation of Britain. As in Italy, some of this work resulted in lavish publications, and notable examples of such work include the accounts by Samuel Lysons (1763–1819) of the villas at Woodchester, Gloucestershire (An Account of the Roman Antiquities Discovered at Woodchester, 1797), and Bignor, Sussex (Reliquiae britannico-romanae, 1817), and Edmund Artis’s (1789–1847) The Durobrivae of Antoninus Identified and Illustrated in a Series of Plates Exhibiting the Excavated Remains of That Roman Station in the Vicinity of Castor, Northants (1828). Projects like these commonly concentrated upon items such as mosaics that had an immediate artistic appeal, but the accounts are equally perceptive in their comments about the sites and their histories. Equally, publication through the medium of communications to the society of antiquaries of london in Archaeologia also records the systematic exploration of major monuments, for instance, Gage’s report on the spectacular finds from the early Roman tumuli in the Bartlow Hills in Essex (Archaeologia 25 and 26, 1834 and 1836).

Antiquarian work undoubtedly raised awareness of antiquities in Britain, and a steady stream of sites and objects were reported upon. Through the nineteenth century the increased pace of development led to a more widespread and less exclusively aristocratic interest, as is shown by the popular growth of the new national and county archaeological societies. The work of individuals like Charles Roach Smith (1807–1890) in London led to a systematic recording of antiquities that were found during development. Similarly, the increased network of interested individuals and local societies encouraged the reporting and publication of finds in a range of new journals and the development of systematic initiatives to explore sites. These projects were often the initiative of individuals or small groups supported with cash raised by public appeal.

Some of the earliest systematic explorations of Roman forts and town sites represent this aspect of Victorian scholarship. For instance, Thomas Wright worked at Wroxeter in the 1850s and 1860s, and Charles Roach Smith dug at a series of fort sites in the southeastern part of the country, including Richborough, Lymme, and Reculver. Similar work was undertaken on Hadrian’s Wall with a particularly significant contribution being made by John Clayton (1792–1890). In 1849, John Collingwood Bruce (1805–1892) organized the first of ten