ABSTRACT
Allan Ramsay had been a fellow of the society since 1743. To appreciate his 'Enquiry into the Situation and Circumstances of Horace's Sabine Villa' we do well to position Ramsay between the two poles in British antiquarianism represented by Martin Folkes and William Stukeley. The diary of Ramsay's son, John, gives some precious glimpses into Ramsay's work on the 'Enquiry' from late 1782 to 4 October 1783, when he and his father were living in Rome. Maire-Boscovich provided antiquarians with a critical new tool that they would need if further progress was to be made. Finally, while the structure of the 'Enquiry' might have made sense had Ramsay been pursuing the villa theme as an element in Horace's poetry, it is rare that he stopped to consider the role played by a villa passage within the overall context of the poem in which it appears.
