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Kingcase, Ayrshire.—At Kilcais or Kingcase, on a bleak muir in the parish of Prestwick, and about two miles from the town of Ayr, stood, for several centuries, an hospital for Lepers. The general tradition of the surrounding country avers that this hospital was founded by King Robert the Bruce. In the article on Ayr, recently published by the Rev. Dr. Auld and Mr. Cuthill, in the New Statistical Account of Scotland,15 the foundation charter of Robert Bruce is said to have been purchased by the Magistrates of that town in 1786. I am obligingly assured, however, by Mr. Murdoch of Ayr, that no such document is known to exist among the archives of that town. It is probable that the hospital existed before the time of Bruce. In a charter to the monastery of Dalmulin, contained in the Chartulary of Paisley Abbey,16 and of the date of the reign of William I. of Scotland, among other lands and localities in Kyle and the immediate neighbourhood of Kingcase, the term Spetel-Crag occurs. Now the term Spetel was a prefix applied, both in Scotland and England, to all hospital lands and possessions, and to these alone; and history records no other hospital whatever in Kyle, from which this appellation of Spetel Craigs could be derived. But whether Bruce was the original founder, or, what is more probable, a liberal endower of the hospital, we know this at least of the history of the Kingcase Leper Hospital, that it possessed at one time pretty extensive lands and property in the parish of Dundonald, and in Kyle Stewart.17

These, like many other hospital grants, came after a time to be perverted from their original objects of charity, and applied to the aggrandisement of particular individuals. Thus the family of Wallace of Newton obtained from James II. a feu-charter of the Kingcase estate of Spittalshiels, for the annual payment of eight merks Scots, and sixteen thrave of straw. In reference to this, the land of Spittalshiels has yet (observes Sir Walter Scott, in a note to his Lord of the Isles18) to give, if required, a quantity of straw for the lepers’ beds of Kingcase, and so much to thatch their houses. Along with Spittalshiels the Wallaces acquired the office of Hereditary Keeper or Governor of the Hospital itself, and of the other lands pertaining to it. In the family of the Wallaces of Craigy this right of patronage and presentation to Kingcase was long held, with all the remaining endowments of the hospital. These privileges were exposed at a judicial sale of the estate of Craigy, and purchased, 1784, by the burgh of Ayr, for £300. The magistrates, from this right, exact feu-duties from the lands formerly belonging to Kingcase, to the annual extent of sixty-four bolls oatmeal, and eight merks Scots money. This revenue has been made over to the poor’s house of Ayr. In virtue of it the magistrates have the privilege of presenting a certain number of inmates to this latter institution.19

No records remain as to the original extent of the Kilcais Hospital. The number of lepers supported was, during the latter years of the institution, limited to eight. Before the hospital revenues and lands were despoiled the number might have been greater. The only remnants of the buildings which are now left consist of the massive side-wall of a house 36 feet long and 17 wide. This is generally alleged to be the ruins of the chapel merely of the hospital; and under this view it is certainly calculated to give us a high opinion of the ancient extent and endowments of the institution. Sir Robert Gordon, in a description of Kyle, published in 1654, in Bleau’s Atlas, states that the persons admitted to the charity were then lodged in huts (tuguria) in the vicinity of the chapel.20

Glasgow.—In 1350, in the reign of David II., the Lady of Lochow, daughter of Robert Duke of Albany, erected a leper hospital at the Gorbals of Glasgow, near the old Bridge.21 She endowed this hospital with some lands and houses in the city. The magistrates of Glasgow seem to have exercised the privilege both of searching for lepers among the inhabitants, and of consigning them to this hospital. From the Burgh Records, presented some time ago by Mr. Smith to the Maitland Club, it appears that in 1573 the magistrates ordained four persons, named as lepers, “to be viseit (inspected), and gif they be fund so, to be secludit of the town to the Hospital at the Brigend.”22 A similar edict was issued in regard to two other individuals in 1575,23 and in 1581 eight more seem to have been dealt with in the same manner.24 The Bishops of Glasgow appear also to have had a right to present patients to the hospital. In 1464, Andrew Muirhead, who then held the bishoprick, availed himself of the privilege by presenting one patient.

On the 9th August 1589, a report was given in to the magistrates of Glasgow, stating that six lepers were at that time in the house.25 As late as 1664, the ground-rents of this hospital were uplifted by the water-bailie, an official who, according to an entry in the city records of Glasgow, was in the custom of giving in annually the number of lepers in the hospital at the Brigend. This hospital, like that of Kingcase, was dedicated to the Gallovidian Saint, St. Ninian.

Edinburgh.—A leper hospital formerly existed at Greenside, which was then a suburb, and not, as now, a constituent part of the city of Edinburgh. The history of the hospital and its laws are preserved in the Town-Council records. In 1584 the city Magistrates issued orders for finding a commodious place for a leper-house.26 In 1589, they passed an Act for building such an