Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/517

 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