"Mysta, fidelis, amans, colui, docui, relevavi,
Numen, oves, inopes, pectore, voce, manu.
Laude orbem, splendore polum, cineresque beatos,
Fama illustravit, mens colit, urna tenet."
It will easily be seen that the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth words are to be read in connexion, as are those that follow these, and those next in succession.
The person on whose tomb the lines occur was the Rev. William Richardson, who died in 1670, having been minister of Killyleagh for twenty-one years. By the way, is not mysta a strange designation for a Presbyterian minister? I should think it would be now considered as objectionable as sacerdos.
E. H. D. D.
Killyleagh, Co. Down.
The Curse of Scotland ([Vol. i., pp. 61.] [90.]; [Vol. iii., p. 22.]).—
"The queen of clubs is called in Northamptonshire Queen Bess, perhaps, because that queen, history says, was of a swarthy complexion; the four of spades, Ned Stokes, but why I know not; the nine of diamonds, the curse of Scotland, because every ninth monarch of that nation was a bad king to his subjects. I have been told by old people, that this card was so called long before the Rebellion in 1745, and therefore it could not arise from the circumstance of the Duke of Cumberland's sending orders, accidentally written upon the card, the night before the battle of Culloden, for General Campbell to give no quarter."
The above extract from a communication to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1791, p. 141., is quoted in Mr. Singer's Researches into the History of Playing Cards, p. 271.; but the reason assigned by the writer does not explain why the nine of diamonds should have acquired the name in question. The nine of any other suit would be equally applicable.