In a sheltered spot called Greenside, near the northern skirts of
the Calton Hill, a small monastery of Carmelite Friars had had a
brief existence before the Reformation. On its desolate site, a
merchant-burgess of Edinburgh, John Robertson by name (whom we soon
after find in the office of bailie), now erected a small house for the
reception of lepers, led thereto, it is stated, by a sense of gratitude
to God for a signal deliverance vouchsafed to him. The town-council
concurred in his object, and undertook the oversight and direction of
the establishment. A committee of their number, in conjunction with a
minister of the city, and John Robertson himself, drew up rules for
the house, and arranged the means of its support. Five men afflicted
with leprosy, and two women, the wives of two of these men, but not
themselves lepers, were admitted, each leper being allowed four
shillings Scots money--equal to 4d. sterling--weekly, and also having
a privilege of begging under certain restrictions. They were on no
account to go about for alms, or to stir from the house at all, or to
admit any visitor, under penalty of death, and, to shew how earnest
was the spirit of this rule, a gibbet was erected at the gable of the
hospital, ready for the instant execution of any transgressor. From
sunset to sunrise, their door was to be kept fast locked, under the
same penalty. Each patient was to take his turn of sitting at the door
‘with ane clapper,’ to attract the attention of people passing between
Edinburgh and Leith, and to beg from them for the general benefit.
The rest were meanwhile to stay within doors. The two wives, Isobel
Barear and Jonet Gatt, were to be allowed to go to market, to purchase
_vivres_ for the lepers and for themselves, but not to call anywhere
else in town, under penalty of death. A person was appointed to read
prayers to the inmates each Sunday, and a weekly oversight was confided
to the Masters of Trinity Hospital. It serves curiously to realise the
whole arrangement to our minds, that this hospital still exists, though
the leper-house seems to have been extinct since the middle of the
seventeenth century.[185]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1591.