2007 Crossbasket modern sundial by Jim Brown

If you look closely at this 2007 picture of Crossbasket (pre renovation!), you’ll see the sundial isn’t quite in keeping with the age of the building. A modern concrete sundial just doesn’t work and indeed, I don’t believe its there anymore. I have a little story about why the original 19th sundial is now missing.

The old sundial is allegedly in America! Descendents of General Peter of Crossbasket took the momento from their Crossbasket family home over to Washington. Let me explain.

In 1805, Thomas, a landowner and tobacco merchant, and his wife, Martha Curtis Peter, a granddaughter of Martha Washington, purchased 8 1/2 acres in 1805 on the outskirts of Georgetown, Washington, America.

Upon the land they formed beautiful gardens which still exist today. Six generations of Peter family built and improved that land, eventually building a more modern property called “Tudor Place.” This

The Crossbasket Sundial in the garden of Tudor Place,Georgetown.

beautiful house is complimented by the sundial, allegedly brought over from Scotland by one of the relatives. At first i was skeptical of this thinking how could the Peter family bring the sundial over by sea in those olden times. A heavy, stone and iron sundial. However, closer inspection of the sundial at Tudor Place and indeed the fact that the original sundial is truly missing from Crossbasket, lends some definite weight to the story.

The sundial at Tudor Place does indeed look older than the house itself. At Crossbasket in Blantyre, the paths leading to the circular feature , lead nowhere, with the sundial , missing.