Description
FIRST EDITION, 8vo, pp. 37, [i]. Extracted from a volume. Lightly foxed, some soiling at front and rear, short tear to title-page.
The Statutes and Rules of James Gillespie’s Hospital and Free School.
- Edinburgh: Printed by D. Willison 1802
£200
Notes
A rare account of the will of the wealthy tobacco merchant James Gillespie of Spylaw (1726-1797), who left a substantial bequest (some £2,700) to establish a school for poor boys, and a further amount for a hospital for the elderly. The hospital later became workshops for the blind and was demolished in the 1970s, but the school remains in operation (though having moved premises several times) as one of Edinburgh's highest-ranking state high schools, with alumni including Muriel Spark, Ronnie Corbett, and Alastair Sim.
