medieval-atlas/the-church/344

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Hospitals Few hospital foundations can be precisely dated, and so the first four maps are based on the first recorded date. The fifth map seeks to identify both hospitals which lasted for a reasonable time after 1560 (some have been excluded on the grounds that survival after 1560 was very brief), and those which were new foundations. Temporary foundations for outbreaks of plague have been omitted. The first map shows that, in general terms, Scotland was well provided with hospitals. There were some sixty by 1300, though they were heavily concentrated in the central belt, Lothian, Fife and the Borders. The absence of hospitals in the Highlands and Islands might be due to a different social system or simple lack ofevidence; but even the eastern coastal strip north of the Inverness area apparently lacked hospitals, and Galloway is surprisingly empty. Berwick was well provided with hospitals, but it was a major town, and different hospitals served different needs, such as those of the poor, the sick, lepers and travellers. The second map shows that the fourteenth century added relatively few hospitals, though it is not certain whether this reflects our lack of knowledge or is genuine evidence of fewer foundations. These hospitals seem largely to reinforce existing provision, except that Helmsdale and St Magnus extend it northwards. The next map seems to show that there was a greater interest in new foundations in the fifteenth century than in the fourteenth, though even in the fifteenth century precise dates of foundation are few. The fourth map shows a surprising number of hospitals first referred to in the sixty years before the Reformation, some of them certainly sixteenth-century foundations. Neither the fifteenth century nor the sixteenth saw any significant change in the geographical distribution of hospitals. The last map is different in purpose, and attempts to show which hospitals survived, often under the control of town councils, and which were new foundations between 1560 and 1707. This is a subject which requires further investigation: there are many uncertainties and problems, and this map is offered in the knowledge that it is likely to be very incomplete. Apart from Kirkwall, the hospitals of this period also do not extend the geographical area of provision. ,4 /l~Rathven Killearna~~t N~ch~,as'4 ?• NeWbUrgh Aberdeen Kincardine O'Neil BreC~in • Montrose Arbroath perth~C~~Portincraig Uthrogle~StAndrews (2) . ~och Leven-fortmoa Ardross v,/ Stirling. QueensfEjrry ( orth) North Berwick "~J~ Inverkeithln~allencne~Fortune Old Kiloatrick. P I d ' Edlnburgh~ ~' Houston ~\}~, 0 ma le :-eStC!ermalnS'e-0ld Cambus t;rookston.· Soutra Hutton Segden (?) Torrance. Lauder Duns. ~'):Berwick upon Tweed (5) • Legerwood~ .• Homdean Lanark Peebles. ., Harlaw (? Earlston •• ". Ednam - Rutherford Kelso . '. Jedburgn Rpxburgh (3) ? = site uncertain km. 25 50 75 100 10 20 30 40 50 60 miles Hospitals first recorded before 1300 NFS 344

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