In a mediaeval and early modern context, the term "hospital" applied to institutions covering a wide variety of care and education functions. John Durkan characterises the inhabitants of St Leonard's as "respectable people who had come down in the world".Durkan in McRoberts 1962, p. 117. The hospital was situated on St Leonard's Hill, at the edge of the King's Park and on other side of a valley from the Salisbury Crags. The Boroughloch lay to the west and Duddingston Loch to the south-east.Balfour 1900, p. 10. In George Forrest's words:
