_The Curse of Scotland_ (Vol. iii., p. 22.).--Your correspondent L.
says, the true explanation of the circumstance of the nine of diamonds
being called the curse of Scotland is to be found in the game of Pope
Joan; but with all due deference to him, I must beg entirely to dissent
from this opinion, and to adhere to the notion of its origin being
traceable to the heraldic bearing of the family of Dalrymple, which are
or, on a saltire azure, _nine lozenges of the field_.
There can be no doubt that John Dalrymple, 2nd Viscount and 1st Earl of
Stair, justly merited the appellation of the "Curse of Scotland," from
the part which he took in the horrible massacre of Glencoe, and from the
utter detestation in which he was held in consequence, and which
compelled him to resign the secretaryship in 1695. After a deliberate
inquiry by the commissioners had declared _him_ to be guilty of the
massacre, we cannot wonder that the man should be held up to scorn by
the most popular means which presented themselves; and the nine diamonds
in his shield would very naturally, being the insignia of his family, be
the best and most easily understood mode of perpetuating that
detestation in the minds of the people.