Antigua.
_The Curse of Scotland_ (Vol. i., pp. 61. 90.; Vol. iii., pp. 22. 253. 423.
483.).--
"There is a common expression made use of at cards, which I have never
heard any explanation of; I mean the nine of diamonds being commonly
called the Curse of Scotland.
"Looking lately over a book of heraldry I found nine diamonds, or
lozenges, conjoined, or, in the heraldic language, Gules, a cross of
lozenges, to be the arms of Packer.
"Colonel Packer appears to have been one of the persons who was on the
scaffold when Charles the First was beheaded, and afterwards commanded
in Scotland, and is recorded to have acted in his command with
considerable severity. It is possible that his arms might, by a very
easy metonymy, be called the Curse of Scotland; and the nine of
diamonds, at cards, being very similar in figure to them, might have
ever since retained the appellation."--_Gent. Mag._, vol. lvi. p. 301.
"I cannot tell whence he learns that Colonel Packer was on the scaffold
when King Charles was beheaded."--_Ibid._, p. 390.
"When the Duke of York (a little before his succession to the crown)
came to Scotland, he and his suite introduced a new game, there called
_Comet_, where the ninth of diamonds is an important card. The Scots
who were to learn the game, felt it to their cost: and from that
circumstance the ninth of diamonds was nicknamed the Curse of
Scotland."--_Ibid._, p. 538.
"The nine of diamonds is called the Curse of Scotland because it is the
great winning card at Comette, which was a game introduced into
Scotland by the French attendants of Mary of Lorraine, queen of James
V., to the ruin of many Scotch families."--_Ibid._, p. 968.
The explanation supplied by the game of Pope Joan is doubtless the correct
one.