Tue HospiraL OF SANQUHAR. 175 
field in which it stands, and a key of enormous size much con- 
sumed with rust was found about twenty years ago, and is now 
lost. In his “ History of Sanquhar ’’ (1853) Dr Simpson says :— 
“Tf a conjecture may be hazarded, we may suppose that the 
church at the west end of Sanchar—(the one erected on the 
site of the present Parish Church)—took its rise in Celtic times, 
and that the church at the east end of which nothing now 
remains originated with the family of Ross, on whose lands it 
was reared. It seems that there was a church and churchyard 
before the hospital was erected on the spot, and that the Rosses 
endowed it.’? Whether this conjecture of the Doctor be 
correct or not it is impossible now to tell. Many years ago a 
tombstone bearing the following inscription was unearthed not 
far from the site of the hospital :— 
Hir Lyes 
The Gude Sir John Ross of Ryehill; 
Hir lyes 
The Gude, Gude Sir John Ross of Ryehill; 
Hir lyes 
The Gude, Gude, Gude Sir John Ross of Ryehill. 
This stone is now lost. 
In addition to this establishment at Sanquhar there were 
others belonging to the Hospitallers throughout Dumfriesshire. 
Traces of the Order are to be found at Ruthwell, where they had 
their preceptory ; at Spitalfield, near Dumfries ; at Howspital and 
Spitalrigging, near Annan, and at Trailtrow, in Annandale; but 
their largest institution was that at Sanquhar. In his “ History 
of Dumfries ’’ the late Mr M‘Dowall, in speaking of the Knights 
Hospitallers, says:—*“ Their largest hospital in the county grew 
up under the shadow of Sanquhar Castle, on the northern bank 
of the Nith. Many years after all traces of it had disappeared 
the plough turned up numerous relics of its inmates, the moulder- 
ing memorials of a brotherhood who were men of note in their 
day, though they are now all but forgotten throughout the district 
—a fate which they share in common with their more dis- 
tinguished fraters, the military monks of the Temple.’’ These 
establishments flourished for about three centuries, but gradually 
fell into decay. Some are inclined to think that the Reformation 
was to blame for the destruction of such edifices, but this is 
hardly correct. As the late Marquis of Bute, in his “ Essays on 
