These, like many other hospital grants, came after a time to be perverted from their original objects of charity, and applied to the aggrandisement of particular individuals. Thus the family of Wallace of Newton obtained from James II. a feu-charter of the Kingcase estate of Spittalshiels, for the annual payment of eight merks Scots, and sixteen thrave of straw. In reference to this, the land of Spittalshiels has yet (observes Sir Walter Scott, in a note to his _Lord of the Isles_[18]) to give, if required, a quantity of straw for the lepers’ beds of Kingcase, and so much to thatch their houses. Along with Spittalshiels the Wallaces acquired the office of Hereditary Keeper or Governor of the Hospital itself, and of the other lands pertaining to it. In the family of the Wallaces of Craigy this right of patronage and presentation to Kingcase was long held, with all the remaining endowments of the hospital. These privileges were exposed at a judicial sale of the estate of Craigy, and purchased, 1784, by the burgh of Ayr, for £300. The magistrates, from this right, exact feu-duties from the lands formerly belonging to Kingcase, to the annual extent of sixty-four bolls oatmeal, and eight merks Scots money. This revenue has been made over to the poor’s house of Ayr. In virtue of it the magistrates have the privilege of presenting a certain number of inmates to this latter institution.[19] No records remain as to the original extent of the Kilcais Hospital. The number of lepers supported was, during the latter years of the institution, limited to eight. Before the hospital revenues and lands were despoiled the number might have been greater. The only remnants of the buildings which are now left consist of the massive side-wall of a house 36 feet long and 17 wide. This is generally alleged to be the ruins of the chapel merely of the hospital; and under this view it is certainly calculated to give us a high opinion of the ancient extent and endowments of the institution. Sir Robert Gordon, in a description of Kyle, published in 1654, in Bleau’s _Atlas_, states that the persons admitted to the charity were then lodged in huts (_tuguria_) in the vicinity of the chapel.[20]