49 
COWANE’S HOSPITAL, STIRLING. 
PLATE 85. 
HE old hospital of the guild brethren at Stirling was founded by one John Cowane 
in 1633. It is splendidly situated on the top of the rock of Stirling, under the 
shadow of the old Greyfriars Church, and commanding magnificent views of the 
winding Forth and the hills of the Trossachs. It is a good example of a simple 
™ stone building of the period, with crow-stepped gables, preserving many of the 
characteristics of Scottish architecture with some infusion of Renaissance detail. 
The design consists of a main block with wings projecting on either side, and 
enclosing a small forecourt. The statue of the founder stands in a niche on the building, and over the 
entrance door is a tablet with the following quaint inscription : “This hospital was erected and largely 
provyded by John Cowane, Deane of Gild, for the Intertainement of Decayed Gild Breither. John 
Cowane 1639. I was hungrie and ye gave me meate : I was thirstie and ye gave me drinke: I was a 
stranger and ye tooke me in : I was sicke and ye visited me.” 
Instead of the twelve decayed brethren who, according to the wish of the pious founder, were to be 
maintained in the Hospital, yearly allowances are now made to a much larger number, and the building 
has been converted into a Guildhall for the meetings of the guildry. 
Plate 85 is a plan of the building and its garden surroundings, reproduced by the kind permission of 
Mr. J. J. Joass, from which it will be seen that the building occupies the northern part of the triangular 
site, and that the forecourt is on the north side. Along the east or garden front of the building is a 
stone terrace overlooking the bowling-green, which occupies the greater part of the garden. There is a 
balustrade with balusters spaced widely apart, and a double flight of steps leading to the green. The 
awkward corner at the south-east of the site was formed into a garden after the Dutch manner, with 
flower-beds bordered by box, and intersected by narrow paths curving about in an aimless fashion. In 
the centre of the south side of the bowling-green is a sundial of rather unusual design, with a pedestal 
resting on two octagonal stone steps. A drawing of this is shown on the plate. 
EARLSHALL, FIFESHIRE. 
PLATES 86 and 87. 
DR seventy years previous to 1891 Earlshall existed only as a picturesque ruin, set 
within its garden wall, in the midst of the remains of an ancient forest, nearly a mile 
south-east of the village of Leuchars. The woods of Earlshall, though of com¬ 
paratively recent date, probably occupy the places of their ancient predecessors, and 
the course of the old avenue, leading to the house, may yet be traced by following 
the lines of ancient beech trees that preserve its symmetrical form. 
The earliest mention of Earlshall is to be found in a charter of J.ames IV., 
dated 1497, bestowing anew on Sir Alexander Bruce the lands of Earlshall, but the present building 
owes its origin to Sir William Bruce, and was finished in the beginning of the seventeenth century. All 
through the troublous times that followed, Earlshall was the scene of many exciting incidents, and con- 
