Curse of Scotland excluded, making the 7, later called the "beer card", a "stop") but there is no direct relation with the 9. Gomme's book goes on to claim "At the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is Pope; therefore the nine of diamonds is the curse of Scotland". "The Spectator" review considered the claim "more cogent in form than in matter". A letter written in response to "The Spectator's" book review pointed out that the saying was established well before Culloden, and preferred the Pope Joan theory to other explanations. Other explanations given in the letter were: An 1864 book
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