THE property of John Kerr Clark, Esq., is situated in the parish of East Kilbride and county of Lanark, distant about eight miles from Glasgow. The house has been built at different times; that part on which the flagstaff is erected is very old, and was built at a date not known: two additions have been made to it during the present century. It is placed on the east side of the romantic glen of the Calder, close to the entrance to Calderwood Castle, and is an interesting and beautiful residence.
The ancient proprietors of Crossbasket were the Lindsays of Dunrod, who had been seated at the Mains of Kilbride since the time of Robert II. (1) Their old property was at Dunrod in Renfrewshire, but they seem to have preferred Mains Castle, where they afterwards resided. The remains of this ancient building are still to be seen. The Castle, with the lands of "Corsbasket," which at one time formed part of the Hamilton estates, (2) came also into the possession of this family, and was used as their jointure house. (3) The properties, both in Kilbride and Renfrewshire, remained in the hands of the Lindsays till the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the wickedness and extravagance of Alexander of Dunrod ruined the family and caused the alienation of the estates. He was reduced to the depth of poverty, and died in a barn belonging to one of his former tenants. He is said to have "greatly exceeded all his predecessors in haughtiness, oppression, and every kind of vice;" and numerous stories are told of his cruelties. (4) He latterly, in the character of a warlock, gained a scanty livelihood by consorting with reputed witches in the village of Inverkip, and along with them selling favourable winds and protection from the Evil One to the sailors and fishermen on the coast. (5) The following verse of an old ballad gives an idea of the feeling cherished in former times towards the last of the old lairds of Mains and Crossbasket:-
"In Auld Kirk the witches ride thick,
And in Dunrod they dwell;
But the greatest loon amang them a'
Is auld Dunrod himsel'."
The property afterwards belonged to Thomas Peter, who was Dean of Guild of Glasgow in 1708-9, and who made a mortification "for the sustentation of an honest, decayed and poor man of the merchants' rank, being a burgess, guild brother and inhabitant of the burgh," dated 20th November, 1721.(6) He was succeeded by his son, General Peter, afterwards of Craigmaddie.
Latterly the property has been in the hands of Charles Mackintosh, Alexander Downie, and John Cabbell successively, by the last of whom it was sold to the father of the present proprietor, James Clark, a well known and respected Glasgow merchant, who died in 1873.
(1) Robertson's Index of Charters, p. 125.
(2) House of Hamilton, p. 409.
(3) Ure's History of Rutherglen.
(4) Ure, p. 152.
(5) Lives of the Lindsays, II., 291, &c.
(6) History of Merchants' House, p. 208.
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