John Horsley

Extract

On January 12th, 1732, John Horsley, Presbyterian divine and schoolmaster, died suddenly at Morpeth at the early age of 46. The following March or April witnessed the publication of his great book, in which real scholarship was for the first time brought to bear upon the interpretation of Romano-British antiquities. The occurrence of this double bicentenary seems to provide an appropriate opportunity for reminding readers of the Journal of the magnitude of the achievement represented by the Britannia Romana. A fully documented account of the author's career, together with an estimate of the value of his work, will appear in the forthcoming volume of Archaeologia Aeliana. For the present purpose, therefore, a brief summary will suffice.