individuals or bodies were occasionally exempted. The duty is called gawite (i.e. gwaite) in the charter of Richard I., and the money-payment exacted in lieu of it was afterwards familiarly known by the name of wait-fee[1].
In the earldom of Cornwall a very remarkable example occurs of a class of tenants who held (and may perhaps be considered as still holding) their lands as of the castle of Launceston, by the tenure of keeping watch at the castle gate. The tenants thus bound to perform "vigilias ad portam castri" also owed suit to a special court in the nature of a court baron, called the "curia vigiliæ," "curia de gayte," or "wayternesse court," of which many records are still extant in the different offices of the Exchequer, and among the records of the Duchy[2].
Among the instances of wait-service in the Winchester Domesday is the following:
"Alestanus fuit monetarius T. R. E. et habuit quandam terram, Modo tenet eam Wigot Delinc et facit omnem consuetudinem præter waitam, et reddit monachis de Sapalanda 30d."
This passage has given rise to the second error of Dr. Lyttleton, to which I have alluded; for he infers from it the existence of a monastery of which every other record has perished, namely, the monastery of Sapaland. Another passage (in folio 8 of the record) appears at first sight to warrant his inference:
"Est ibi juxta quædam mans[io], quæ reddit monachis de Sapalanda 30d, et facit consuetudines quas solebat facere T. R. E."
The result has been that the new monastery of Sapaland has taken its place among the ancient English conventual estabhshments in Nasmyth's edition of Tanner's Notitia, and
- ↑ See 1 Rym. 5 Ric. I. new ed. Bloomfield, in his History, seems to have misunderstood this word. Spelman, in his Gloss., voc. waite-fee, gives an instance, temp. Eliz., of a tenure by "waite-fee et castle-garde."
- ↑ The horn of the castle watchman was troublesome to noctivagous lovers:
"Gaite de la tor!
Gardez entor
Les murs, se Deus vos voie;
C'or sont à séjor
Dame et seignor,
El larron vont en proie. (La gaite corne.)
Hu, et hu, et hu, et hu!
Je l'ai veu,
Là jus soz la coudroie!
Hu, et hu, et hu, et hu!
A bien près l'ocirroie." &c.Chansons de Flore et Blanchefleur, 13e siècle. Chants Historiques, par Leroux de Lincy, 1e Serie, p. 139. ed. 1841. Paris. My readers will hardly require to be reminded that the waits, whose spontaneous music disturbs our sleep before Christmas, are souvenirs of the armed watch, who guarded the repose of King William at Shrewsbury, of the burghers and nobles at Winchester, and of the abbot and monks of St. Germain, in the days of Charlemagne.
