Curse of Scotland play. Curse of Scotland The Curse of Scotland is a nickname used for the Nine of Diamonds playing card. The expression has been used at least since the early 18th century, and many putative explanations have been given for the origin of this nickname for the card. In a book printed in London in 1708, "The British Apollo, or, Curious amusements for the ingenious", a question is posed: Q. "Why is the" Nine of Diamonds "called" the curse of Scotland? A. Diamonds as the Ornamental Jewels of a Regnal Crown, imply no more in the above-nam'd Proverb than a mark
Curse of Scotland Royalty, for SCOTLAND'S "Kings" for many Ages, were observ'd, each "Ninth" to be a "Tyrant", who by Civil Wars, and all the fatal consequences of intestine discord, plunging the "Divided Kingdom" into strange Disorders, gave occasion, "in the course of time", to form the Proverb. A similar book of 1726 gives the same question and answer, still regarding the question as relating to a proverb. By 1757 the card was described as "commonly called the Curse of Scotland" with the explanation that the epithet refers to Lord Ormistoune, Lord Justice Clerk from 1692 to 1735, who suppressed the Jacobite rising