Notes & Queries Archive
QUERY1849

THE CURSE OF SCOTLAND—WHY IS THE NINE OF DIAMONDS SO CALLED?

By EDW. HAWKINS.

I shall be obliged to any of your correspondents who will inform me why the Nine of Diamonds is called the curse of Scotland. I have heard two causes assigned. One, that the Duke of Cumberland, on the field after the battle of Culloden, wrote upon the back of this card a very cruel and inhuman order for the destruction of the persons and property of the rebels. This cannot be true, for I have in my possession a print entitled "Britons Association against the Pope's Bulls." In it the young Pretender or prince is represented attempting to lead across the Tweed a herd of bulls laden with curses,…