The Bellman--Descriptions of him--His verses. The
Waits--Their origin--Ned Ward on them--Corporation
Waits--York Waits (17th Century)--Essay on
Waits--Westminster Waits--Modern Waits.
Before the advent of Christmas the Bellman, or Watchman, left at each
house a copy of verses ostensibly breathing good-will and a happy
Christmas to the occupants, but in reality as a reminder to them of
his existence, and that he would call in due time for his Christmas
box. The date of the institution of the Bellman is not well defined.
In Tegg's _Dictionary of Chronology_, 1530 is given, but no authority
for the statement is adduced; Machyn, in his diary, is more definite
"[the xij. day of January 1556-7, in Alderman Draper's ward called]
chordwenerstrett ward, a belle man [went about] with a belle at evere
lane, and at the ward [end to] gyff warnyng of ffyre and candyll
lyght, [and to help the] poure, and pray for the ded." Their cry
being, "Take care of your fire and candle, be charitable to the poor,
and pray for the dead."
Shakespeare knew him, for in _Macbeth_ (Act II. sc. 2) he says:
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bell man,
Which gives the stern'st good night.
And Milton mentions him in _Il Penseroso_:
Or the bellman's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly harm.
Herrick also celebrates _The Bellman_:
From noise of Scare-fires rest ye free,
From Murders _Benedicite_.
From all mischances, that may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the night;
Mercie secure ye all, and keep
The Goblin from ye, while ye sleep.
Past one o'clock, and almost two,
My Masters all, _Good day to you_.
On the title page of Decker's _Belman of London_ (ed. 1608) we have a
woodcut giving a vivid portrait of the Bellman going his nightly
rounds with his pike upon his shoulder, a horn lanthorn, with a candle
inside, in one hand, and his bell, which is attached by a strap to his
girdle, in the other hand, his faithful dog following him in his
nightly rounds. In his _Lanthorne and Candle light; or The Bell-man's
second Night's walke_, ed. 1608, the title page gives us a totally
different type of Bellman, carrying both bell and lanthorn, but
bearing no pike, nor is he accompanied by a dog. In his _O per se O_,
ed. 1612, is another type of Bellman, with lanthorn, bell, and brown
bill on his shoulder, but no dog. And in his _Villanies Discovered by
Lanthorne and Candle Light_, etc., ed. 1620, we have two more and yet
different Bellmen, one with bell, lanthorn, and bill, followed by a
dog; the other (a very rough wood cut) does not give him his
four-footed friend. This is the heading to the "Belman's Cry":
Men and Children, Maides and Wives,
'Tis not late to mend your lives:
* * * * *
When you heare this ringing Bell,
Think it is your latest knell:
When I cry, Maide in your Smocke,
Doe not take it for a mocke:
Well I meane, if well 'tis taken,
I would have you still awaken:
Foure a Clocke, the Cock is crowing
I must to my home be going:
When all other men doe rise,
Then must I shut up mine eyes.
He was a person of such importance, that in 1716 Vincent Bourne
composed a long Latin poem in praise of one of the fraternity: "Ad
Davidem Cook, Westmonasterii Custodem Nocturnum et Vigilantissimum,"
a translation of which runs thus, in the last few lines:
Should you and your dog ever call at my door,
You'll be welcome, I promise you, nobody more.
May you call at a thousand each year that you live,
A shilling, at least, may each householder give;
May the "Merry Old Christmas" you wish us, befal,
And your self, and your dog, be the merriest of all!
At Christ-tide it was their custom to leave a copy of verses, mostly
of Scriptural character, and generally very sorry stuff, at every
house on their beat, with a view to receiving a Christmas box; and
this was an old custom, for Gay notices it in his _Trivia_ (book ii.)
written in 1715:
Behold that narrow street which steep descends,
Whose building to the slimy shore extends;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame,
The street, alone, retains the empty name;
Where Titian's glowing paint the canvass warm'd,
And Raphael's fair design, with judgment, charm'd,
Now hangs the _bellman's song_, and pasted here
The coloured prints of Overton appear.
Another ante-Christmas custom now falling into desuetude is the waits,
who originally were musical watchmen, who had to give practical
evidence of their vigilance by playing on the hautboy, or flageolet,
at stated times during the night. In the household of Edward IV. there
is mentioned in the _Liber niger Domus Regis_, "A Wayte, that nightely
from Mychelmas to Shreve Thorsdaye, _pipe the watch_ within this
courte fowere tymes; in the Somere nightes three tymes, and maketh
_bon gayte_ at every chambre doare and offyce, as well for feare of
pyckeres and pillers."[25]
[Footnote 25: Pickers and stealers.]
These waits afterwards became bands of musicians, who were ready to
play at any festivities, such as weddings, etc., and almost every city
and town had its band of waits; the City of London had its Corporation
Waits, which played before the Lord Mayor in his inaugural procession,
and at banquets and other festivities. They wore blue gowns, red
sleeves and caps, and every one had a silver collar about his neck.
Ned Ward thus describes them in his _London Spy_ (1703).
"At last bolted out from the corner of a street, with an _ignis
fatuus_ dancing before them, a parcel of strange hobgoblins, covered
with long frieze rugs and blankets, hooped round with leather girdles
from their cruppers to their shoulders, and their noddles buttoned up
into caps of martial figure, like a Knight Errant at tilt and
tournament, with his wooden head locked in an iron helmet; one, armed,
as I thought with a lusty faggot-bat, and the rest with strange wooden
weapons in their hands, in the shape of clyster pipes, but as long
almost as speaking trumpets. Of a sudden they clapped them to their
mouths, and made such a frightful yelling that I thought _he_ would
have been dissolving, and the terrible sound of the last trumpet to be
within an inch of my ears.... 'Why, what,' says he, 'don't you love
musick? These are the topping tooters of the town, and have gowns,
silver chains and salaries for playing _Lilli-borlero_ to my Lord
Mayor's horse through the City.'"
That these Corporation Waits were no mean musicians we have the
authority of Morley, who, in dedicating his _Consort Lessons_ to the
Lord Mayor and Aldermen in 1599, says:
"As the ancient custom of this most honourable and renowned city hath
been ever to retain and maintain excellent and expert musicians to
adorn your Honours' favours, feasts and solemn meetings--to these,
your Lordships' Wayts, I recommend the same--to your servants' careful
and skilful handling."
These concert lessons were arranged for six instruments--viz. two
viols (treble and bass), a flute, a cittern (a kind of guitar, strung
with wire), a treble lute, and a pandora, which was a large
instrument, similar to a lute, but strung with wire in lieu of catgut.
The following is a description of the York Waits, end of seventeenth
century:
In a Winter's morning,
Long before the dawning,
'Ere the cock did crow,
Or stars their light withdraw,
Wak'd by a hornpipe pretty,
Play'd along York City,
By th' help of o'er night's bottle
Damon made this ditty....
In a winter's night,
By moon or lanthorn light,
Through hail, rain, frost, or snow
Their rounds the music go;
Clad each in frieze or blanket
(For either, heav'n be thanked),
Lin'd with wine a quart,
Or ale a double tankard.
Burglars send away,
And, bar guests dare not stay;
Of claret, snoring sots
Dream o'er their pipes and pots,
* * * * *
Candles, four in the pound,
Lead up the jolly Round,
While Cornet shrill i' th' middle
Marches, and merry fiddle,
Curtal with deep hum, hum,
Cries we come, come,
And theorbo loudly answers,
Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum.
But, their fingers frost-nipt,
So many notes are o'erslipt,
That you'd take sometimes
The Waits for the Minster chimes:
Then, Sirs, to hear their musick
Would make both me and you sick,
And much more to hear a roopy fiddler call
(With voice, as Moll would cry,
"Come, shrimps, or cockles buy").
"Past three, fair frosty morn,
Good morrow, my masters all."
With regard to their modern practice of playing during the night-tide,
we find the following explanation in an _Essay on the Musical Waits at
Christmas_, by John Cleland, 1766. Speaking of the Druids, he says:
"But, whatever were their reasons for this preference, it is out of
doubt that they generally chose the dead of night for the celebration
of their greatest solemnities and festivals. Such assemblies, then,
whether of religion, of ceremony, or of mere merriment, were
promiscuously called _Wakes_, from their being nocturnal. The master
of the _Revels_ (_Reveils_) would, in good old English, be termed the
Master of the _Wakes_. In short, such nocturnal meetings are the
_Wakes_ of the Britons; the _Reveillons_ of the French; the
_Medianoche_ of the Spaniards; and the _Pervigilia_ of the Romans. The
Custom of _Wakes_ at burials (_les vigiles des morts_) is at this
moment, in many parts, not discontinued.
"But, at the antient _Yule_ (or Christmas time, especially), the
dreariness of the weather, the length of the night, would naturally
require something extraordinary, to wake and rouse men from their
natural inclination to rest, and to a warm bed, at that hour. The
summons, then, to the _Wakes_ of that season were given by music,
going the rounds of invitation to the mirth or festivals which were
awaiting them. In this there was some propriety, some object; but
where is there any in such a solemn piece of banter as that of music
going the rounds and disturbing people in vain? For, surely, any
meditation to be thereby excited on the holiness of the ensuing day
could hardly be of great avail, in a bed, between sleeping and waking.
But such is the power of custom to perpetuate absurdities.
"However, the music was called _The Wakeths_, and, by the usual
tendency of language to euphony, softened into _Waits_, as _workth_
into _wort_, or _checkths_ into _chess_, etc."
Another authority, Jones, in his _Welsh Bards_, 1794, says: "Waits are
musicians of the lower order, who commonly perform on Wind
instruments, and they play in most towns under the windows of the
chief inhabitants, at midnight, a short time before Christmas; for
which they collect a Christmas box, from house to house. They are said
to derive their name of _Waits_, for being always in waiting to
celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening within their
district. There is a building at Newcastle called _Waits' Tower_,
which was, formerly, the meeting-house of the town band of musicians."
The town waits certainly existed in Westminster as late as 1822, and
they were elected by the Court of Burgesses of that city--_vide_ a
magazine cutting of that date: "_Christmas Waits_.--Charles Clapp,
Benjamin Jackson, Denis Jelks, and Robert Prinset, were brought to Bow
Street Office by O. Bond, the constable, charged with performing on
several musical instruments in St. Martin's Lane, at half-past twelve
o'clock this morning, by Mr. Munroe, the authorized principal Wait,
appointed by the Court of Burgesses for the City and Liberty of
Westminster, who alone considers himself entitled, by his appointment,
to apply for Christmas boxes. He also urged that the prisoners, acting
as Minstrels, came under the meaning of the Vagrant Act, alluded to in
the 17th Geo. II.; however, on reference to the last Vagrant Act of
the present king, the word 'minstrels' is omitted; consequently, they
are no longer cognizable under that Act of Parliament; and, in
addition to that, Mr. Charles Clapp, one of the prisoners, produced
his indenture of having served seven years as an apprentice to the
profession of a musician to Mr. Clay, who held the same appointment as
Mr. Munroe does under the Court of Burgesses. The prisoners were
discharged, after receiving an admonition from Mr. Halls, the sitting
magistrate, not to collect Christmas boxes."
In an article, "Concerning Christmas," in _Belgravia_ (vol. 6, new
series, p. 326), we read: "It may not, perhaps, be generally known
that, in the year of grace 1871, 'Waits' are regularly sworn before
the Court of Burgesses at Westminster, and act under the authority of
a warrant, signed by the clerk, and sealed with the arms of the city
and liberty; in addition to which they are bound to provide themselves
with a silver badge, also bearing the arms of Westminster."
The modern waits have entirely departed from any pretence of allusion
to Christ-tide, and play indifferently the last things out in dance
music, operatic airs, or music-hall songs; and they act upon people
according to their various temperaments, some liking to "hear the
waits," whilst others roundly anathematise them for disturbing their
slumbers.