The Nocturnal Noises of the Wandering Waits

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n One old Christmas custom that, to all intents andnpurposes, had died out is now, in a slightly different form, making somethingnof a return. I am referring to the Waits, the groups of musicians who played inntowns and cities, usually at night, and who came to be associated withnChristmastide. Why they were called Waits is something of a mystery -nthere is evidence to support all of the views, each of which has its ownnmerits. There are some who believe that the term derives from the musicalninstruments that they played, others think that it refers to the type of musicnthey played, whilst others prefer the view that it was applied to those whonperformed under special circumstances.

The Waits

nThe name Waits was applied to thenminstrels attached to the King’s court who patrolled the streets at night,nprotecting the citizenry and proclaiming the hour, in much the same manner asnthe city watch in those days before the police force was established. There wasna regular company of Waits at Exeter as early as 1400 and an account in LibernNiger Domus Regis from the time of Edward IV records,

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n“A wayte, thatnnightelye from Mychelmas to Shreve Thorsdaye pipethe the watche withen thisncourte fower tymes, in the somere nyghtes iij tymes, and makethe bon gayte atnevery chambere dore and offyce, as well for feare of pyckeres and pillers.”

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Domestic Waits

nThis ‘Wait’ was a kind of yeoman-page, paid partly in money and partly innboard-wages, and may well be the origin of the yeoman-waiter of later days, (itnshould be noted that in this version, he is a ‘domestic wayte’, rather than an‘civil wayte’). In his edition of The Famous History of Dr Faustusn(1858), William Thom writes,

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n“Lastly, was heard by Faustus all manner ofninstruments of musick, as organs, clarigolds, lutes, viols, citterns, waits,nhornpipes, flutes, anomes, harps, and all manner of other instruments.”

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London Waits – words and music

nHere the waits are included in the list of instruments, and in his Principlesnof Musik (1636), Charles Butler includes the same in a list,

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n“Harp,nLute, Bandora, Orparion, Cittern, Gittern, Cymbal, Pfalteri, Dulcimer, Viol,nVirginal, &c. and (of Emfmeufta) Pipe, Organ, Shalm, Sagbut, Cornet,nRecorder, Fluit, Waits or Hobois, Trumpet &c.”

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C Butler – Principles of Musik – 1636 (Waits and Hobois underlined)

nThis ‘waitsnor hobois’ implies that it is the same instrument known as the hoboy,nhautboys, hautbois or oboe; it is called the waits or wayghtes, sometimes thenwait-pipe, which was another name for the shawm, an old, double-reeded,nwoodwind instrument that was the fore-runner of the oboe and the bassoon. Itnwas a long wooden pipe with a flared, trumpet-like bell at the end, and had anharsh, piercing sound that was well suited to open-air playing.

Shawms

nHautboys, thennoun, has no singular form, and the name was passed to the performers whonplayed them in public and thence to any performer who played any instrument inna similar manner. That the name of the instrument became the name of thenperformers can be seen in this extract from the Gentleman’s Magazinenfrom 1756, describing the freemen of Alnwick who,

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n“… enter the town, swordnin hand, and are generally met by women dressed up with ribbons, bells andngarlands of gum-flowers, who welcome them with dancing and singing, and arencalled timber-waits (perhaps a corruption of timbrel-waits, players onntimbrels, waits being an old word for those who play on musical instruments innthe streets)”.

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nIn a curious, old poetical satire by Andrew Brice ThenMobiad, (1737), he writes,

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n“Shrill Hautboys and the fhriller Trumpetngreet,

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nAttentive Ears, by Turn, in ev’ry Street,”

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nwith an added note,

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n“Hautboys,n&c. – The City Waits and Trumpet, about this Hour of Eight, begin tontraverfe the Town.”

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nIn a letter to his brother dated January 2^ndn1614, Robert Heyricke, an alderman of Leicester, wrote,

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n“Yow wryte how yownreacayved my letur of (on) St Stevens day, and that, I thanke yow, yow esteemednyt as weelcoom as the 18 trumpytors.”

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Waits Badge from Leicester

nBy the 1500s, the city waits werenissued with uniforms and played at the parades made by mayors and other civicndignitaries, as well as watching over the nighttime streets until these patrolsnpassed over to the regular police force. Samuel Johnson did not included thenword ‘wait’ in this sense in his Dictionary, but Edmund Burke, innhis copy of the same (now in the British Museum), has a hand-written addendanreading,

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n“WAIT, n. s. from ye French guet (literally a sentinel on outpostnduty). 2. Waits, in ye pl. an old word signifying ye night Guard in ye city ofnLondon.”

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The calling Waits

nA different entomology links ‘waits’ to the German ‘wacht’,nas a watch-man and without the musical connotations, with others pointing tonthe old Scots word ‘waith’, meaning ‘to wander from place to place’,nreferring to the ‘menstrales’ of, for example, Glasgow, wherencertificates and uniforms where issued to old, often blind, respectablenmusicians who played slow, soothing airs on the December nights leading up tonthe New Year and who then collected subscriptions from the inhabitants of thencity.

The Waits call

nThe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the peak of the waits asnpublic performers, maybe following the examples of the carollers andnwassailers, and for the three weeks preceding Christmas the waits would playnevery night in the streets of the cities, returning during the days to collectnmoney, food and drink.

Waits Badge from Wakefield – 1670

nThey were issued with special licences but othernunofficial groups, cashing in on the practice, also performed and collectedntips, leading the official, established waits to complain about the activitiesnof these impromptu opportunists. It was probably the amateur performances ofnthese ‘musicians’ that marked the beginning of the end of the waits, as the oncenwelcome nighttime subtleties of an older age were replaced with a raucous,nnocturnal clamour that roused the innocent householders from their Decembernslumbers, with insult added to their injuries when the perpetrators returned innthe daylight, demanding tips and Christmas boxes.

The Unwelcome Waits

nIn December 1822, Mr Munroe,nthe authorised principal London Wait, brought charges against four men fornplaying musical instruments in St Martin’s Lane at half-past twelve in thenmorning and for soliciting Christmas boxes. Due to the wording of the VagrancynAct, the defendants got off on a technicality, but were admonished by Mr Halls,nthe sitting magistrate, and ordered not to collect any more Christmas boxes.nThe Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, as part of the great early Reform acts,neffectively ended the role of the official civic Waits, although amateurnmusicians continued to accompany carol singers at their concerts and modernnWaits societies have revived the spirit of the Waits in their reconstructionsn(although, thankfully, they no longer parade and play through the streetsnduring the winter nights).

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