Cursed! Dalrymple legacy lives on in Scots gaming lore
When I was a child and we had a family game of dominoes, if my father played the double four he would say: “The curse of Scotland”. Is there any historic reason for this? – D. Not that I know of. The nine of diamonds in a pack of playing cards is commonly called “The Curse of Scotland” so perhaps you have misremembered slightly. The card was first referred to as “The Curse of Scotland” in print in 1710. The Curse most probably refers to Sir John Dalrymple, the 1st Earl of Stair, who had died in 1707. The reason for the connection with this particular card is obvious, as the Dalrymple family crest has a pattern of nine diamond shapes. Dalrymple had been a successful politician, but was ruthless in his pursuit of several causes that were deeply unpopular with many Scots. He had been influential in persuading the Scots to accept William and Mary in place of James VII in 1688, which led to his deep hatred by Scottish Jacobites. And, as Secretary of State, it was Dalrymple who ordered the Glencoe Massacre in 1692. In the early 1700s, he helped push through the Act of Union with England. As a result a large number of anti-Union Scots also came to dislike his memory. So whether the phrase “The Curse of Scotland” was coined by those who disliked Dalrymple because they were Jacobites, or antiUnionists, or possibly due to his role in the Glencoe massacre, it rapidly caught on, and is still in use today.