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.