The Nine of Diamonds is frequently called the "Curse of Scotland;" and the common tradition is that it obtained this name in consequence of the Duke of Cumberland having written his sanguinary orders for military execution, after the battle of Culloden, on the back of a Nine of Diamonds. This card, however, appears to have been known in the North as the "Curse of Scotland" many years before the battle of Culloden; for Dr. Houstoun, speaking of the state of parties in Scotland shortly after the rebellion of 1715, says that the Lord Justice-Clerk Ormistone, who had been very zealous in suppressing the rebellion, and oppressing the rebels, "became universally hated in Scotland, where they called him the Curse of Scotland; and when the ladies were at cards playing the Nine of Diamonds, (commonly called the Curse of Scotland) they called it the Justice Clerk." [306]
In the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1786, a correspondent offers the following heraldic conjecture on the subject. "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 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." Another correspondent says that he has always understood that the application of the expression, "the Curse of Scotland," to the nine of diamonds was not earlier than the year 1707; and that he thinks it more probable that the nine lozenges in the arms of the Earl of Stair, who made the Union, should have given rise to the phrase, than the arms of Packer. In the same Magazine, for 1788, we have "One more conjecture concerning the Nine of Diamonds." It is syllogistic in form, and appears to have been intended as a clinch to the controversy. [307] "The Curse of Scotland must be something which that nation hate and detest; but the Scots hold in the utmost detestation the Pope; at the game of Pope Joan, the Nine of Diamonds is Pope; therefore the Nine of Diamonds is the Curse of Scotland. Q. E. D."
In the 'Oracle, or Resolver of Questions,' a duodecimo volume, printed about 1770, the following solution is given, which is perhaps as near the truth as any of the preceding conjectures. "Q. Pray why is the Nine of Diamonds called the Curse of Scotland? A. Because the crown of Scotland had but nine diamonds in it, and they were never able to get a tenth."
The word Trump, signifying a card of the suit which has the superiority at certain games, such superiority being determined by hazard, is derived either from the French Triomphe, or the Spanish Triunfo: at cards, these words have precisely the same meaning as the English Trump. [308] With the French, Triomphe is also the name of a game at cards; and in England the old game of Ruff seems also to have been called Trump or Triumph. [309] At Gleek, the Ace was called Tib; the Knave, Tom; and the Four, Tiddy. The Five and Six appear to have been respectively called Towser and Tumbler, and to have counted double when turned up. At All-Fours, the Knave appears in his proper character of Jack,—a serving-man, not a cheat, or rogue.
At certain games the Knave of Clubs is called Pam. A few years ago the name was applied to the celebrated public character whom Byron is supposed to have designated as "a moral chimney-sweep," in one of the cantos of Don Juan. [310] Most of the terms in the game of Ombre are Spanish.
Formerly a pack of cards was usually called a "Pair of cards;" and it appears deserving of remark, that the Italians use the word Pajo, which properly signifies a pair, in precisely the same sense when applied to a pack of cards,—Pajo di carte. In the time of Queen Elizabeth a pack of cards appears to have been sometimes called a bunch. In the time of Charles II the term "Pair of Cards" fell into disuse; and perhaps one of the latest instances of its employment, is to be found in Poor Robin's Almanac for 1684, under the month December, where the writer, in his introductory verses, laments the decline of good housekeeping in the houses of the rich:
"The kitchen that a-cold may be,
For little fire you in it may see.
Perhaps a pair of cards is going,
And that's the chiefest matter doing."