I may add, as a slight contribution to a future edition of the
_Typographical Antiquities_, that among Bagford's curious collection of
title-pages in the Harleian Collection of MSS. (which I doubt if Dr.
Dibdin ever consulted with care), there is the last leaf of an edition
of the _Ortus Vocabulorum_, unnoticed by bibliographers, with the
following colophon:--

"Impr. London. per Wynandum de Worde, commorantem in vico
nuncupato Fletestrete, sub intersignio solis aurei, Anno
incarnatiôis Dominice M.CCCCC.IX. die vero prima mêsis
Decêbris."--_Harl. MSS._ 5919. art. 36.

* * * * *

ANSWERS TO MINOR QUERIES.

The Curse of Scotland--Why the Nine of Diamonds is so called.

When I was a child (now about half a century ago) my father used to
explain the origin of the nine of diamonds being called "The curse of
Scotland" thus: That it was the "_cross_ of Scotland," which, in the
Scotch pronunciation, had become "curse."

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland: he suffered on a cross, not
of the usual form, but like the letter X, which has since been commonly
called a St. Andrew's cross. It was supposed that the similarity of the
nine of diamonds to this form occasioned its being so called. The arms
of the Earl of Stair, alluded to in your publication, are exactly in the
form of this cross. If this explanation should be useful, you are most
welcome to it.