Why is the Nine of Diamonds known as the Curse of Scotland?

• AFTER the Battle of Culloden, the order to hunt down the supporters of 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' was written on the back of a nine of diamonds playing card by the Duke of Cumberland - remembered since then as 'Butcher' Cumberland for the severity with which the order was carried out.

  Jim O'Sullivan, Yarm, Cleveland.

• THE MOST likely explanation stems from the fact that the coat of arms of Sir John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, was 'or, on a saltire azure, nine lozenges of the first' (ie, a nine of diamonds). After the leader of the MacDonald clan inadvertently failed to sign an oath of loyalty to William III, Dalrymple moved to use this as an excuse to eliminate the leading clan members, in what became known as the Glen Coe massacre. It was Sir John who slipped the death warrants into William's notoriously huge in-tray an d tricked the king into signing them. The scandal was not only that the slaughter occurred, but also that, although Dalrymple was charged with treason, he was not tried and was merely dismissed from office, three years later. In Scotland today, the holiday caravan is nicknamed the nine of diamonds.

  D R F Forsyth, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

• I HAVE a pack of 'Historical Scottish Playing Cards' which offers three possible reasons for this name. Firstly, in the game called Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is known as the Pope - anti-Christ of the Scottish reformers. Another explanation comes from the game Comette (introduced by Mary Queen of Scots) in which it was the winning card. Due to the fact that so many were ruined by the game, it was called 'the curse of Scotland'. One other possibility is that the nine of diamonds is arranged to form a St Andrew's cross (but then so are the other nines) - 'curse' being a corruption of the word 'cross'.

  Joy Bennett, Hull, N Humberside.