ii s.v. JU.XE 1,1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
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" WALE " = CHOICE. In his
recent book on ' Edinburgh and
the Lothians ' Mr. Francis Watt
devotes a chapter to Tantallon and
the Bass, and appropriately refers
to the Covenanters who were con-
fined for a time within the prison
on the massive rock. Dwelling par-
ticularly on the character of the
enthusiast Peden, who is popularly
known as " Peden the Prophet."
he says that this singular indivi-
dual is " admirably touched off
in R. L. Stevenson's ' Catriona/
and then gives an excerpt which
begins thus :
" There was never the wale of him sinsyne, and it 's a question wi' mony if there ever was his like afore."
One infers from this that Steven- son considered " wale : ' denoted peer or equal, and that he balanced his sentence by using " like :: with the same significance in the second clause. If this conclusion is correct, then the usage illustrates the misleading tendency which is so- characteristic of modern Scotch. " Wale " (Mces. G. wal- jan, Germ. wel-en. eligere, as Jamieson says) means choice, selection, or the best, and indicates pre-eminence and not parity. Examples are abundant. Gavin Douglas, for ex- ample, thus translates ' ^Eneid J vii. 274 : This beanfl said, the king Latyne, but
faill, Gart cheis of all his steidis furth the
waill.
Rob Morris, an ancient swain of Scottish song whom Burns rein- vigorated, has permanent distinc- tion as " the king of good fellows and waJe of a uld men. ' ' Then there is the standard anecdote of the Laird of Balnamoon's wig. It blew off at midnight on a lonely moor, and when found by the owner's manservant was declared to be too bedraggled to be the genuine article. "Ah, but." quoth the shrewd attendant. " it maun e'en be the right thing, for there's nae wale o' wigs here ! '
THOMAS BAYXE.
FRANCIS BACOX : A RECENT
EXEMPLU JI ALPH ABETI BlLITER AEU.
A cursory inspection of the preface to Mr. Granville G
