Spittal’s HospitalTHIS HOVS IS FOVNDIT FOR SVPPORT OF THE PVIR Robert Spittal, one of Stirling’s greatest benefactors, was Court Tailor to King James IV and died at a great age in 1550 . In 1530 he founded a Hospital for the poor of the burgh. Its original location is uncertain, but fairly soon after the Reformation it seems to have found a home in the Greyfriars Yards and thereafter in the “Nether Hospital” beside Irvine Place. Whether it was ever situated at No. 82 Spittal Street is uncertain, but there can be no question that this property belonged to its Founder, who purchased it from Sir James Shaw of Sauchie in 1521. The building originally resembled the Darrow Ludging, which adjoins it on the west, but it was despoiled of its turnpike tower and dormer windows in the later nineteenth century. A panel in the front wall states that : THIS HOVS IS FOVNDIT FOR SVPPORT OF THE PVIR BE ROBERT SPITTAL TAILLOYOVR TO KING JAMES THE 4 IN ANNO 1530, but this must have been brought here from the original Hospital. In the strictest sense, “Spittal’s Hospital” cannot he classed as a “public building,” but it is included in this series as the one visible, and quite authentic, memorial of the various old buildings of two great Stirling institutions — the Spittal Trust itself, and the seven Incorporated Trades of Stirling with which its history is so closely interwoven. |