WAITS (anciently spelled waightes) is a name which has, at successive'periods of our history, been given to different classes of musical watchmen. The word is one, in slightly varied forms, common in the sense of guard or watchman to all the Germanic languages. It is the German wacht or wadie, Dutch wagt, Danish vaght, Swedish wakt, Scotch Ovate. and the English watch. How the word in the form of waits came to be ex clusively applied to musical watchmen in England and Scotland, it is impossible to say. In the time of Edward IV. the waits appeared to have formed a distinct class from both the watch and the minstrels. It was their duty, we learn from Rymer's Flaera, to pipe the watch nightly in the king's court from Michaelmas to Shrove Thursday four times, in the summer nights three times, and to make " the bon gayte" at every chamber door and office, for fear of pyckeres and pilfers. The waits were not confined to the court; there were musical watchmen at an early period in many provincial towns. In Exeter a regular company existed in 1400. Beaumont and Fletcher (Knight of the Burning Pestle) speak of the " waits of Southwark as rare fellows as asy in England." The word in the provinces was afterward sometimes applied to the town musicians, who may lave represented the old waits, but who had no duties to perform as watchmen. The name was also given to the town band, or to private musicians when employed as sere naders. In this sense it is used in the Tatter (No. 222). The writer says that it had become so much the custom for lovers to employ the waits to help them through their courtship in Nottingham, that the ladies of that place could get no sleep by reason of riotous lovers who infested the streets with violins and bass-viols between 12 o'clock and 4 in the morning. Till recently the waits were officially recognized in London and West
minster. In London the post of leader of the waits was purchased; in Westminster the appointment was in the gift of the high constable and court of burgesses. In 1820 a lir. Munro obtained the post of official leader of the waits for Westminster, with the exclusive right to serenade the inhabitants, and make application for Christmas boxes. His prerogatives were invaded by other musicians, and lie prosecuted several persons Ipefore the police courts. At present, in the metropolis, the waits are musicians who play during the night or early in the morning for two or three weeks before Christmas.
They call afterward at the houses of the inhabitants to ask for a Christmas-box. In Glasgow there were waits at an early period. The magistrates still grant a certificate to a few musicians, generally blind men, who play in the streets during the night and morning for about three weeks previous to New Year's day. Like the London waits, they call at the houses of the inhabitants, show their credentials, and ask a small sub eenption.—See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 742.