OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAIT SERVICE. 341

individuals or bodies were occasionally exempted. The duty is called r/a?vi/e (i. e. fjiDcdie) in the charter of Richard I., and the money-payment exacted in lieu of it was afterwards familiarly known by the name of icait-fee^. 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 Laun- ceston, by the tenure of keeping watch at the castle gate. The tenants thus bound to perform " vigilias ad portam castri" also ow^ed suit to a special court in the nature of a court baron, called the " curia vigiliae," " curia de gayte," or " wcif/teniesse court," of which many records are still extant in the different offices of the Exchequer, and among the records of the Duchy^. Among the instances of wait-service in the Winchester Domesday is the following : " Alestanns fuit monetarius T. R. E. et liabuit quandam terrain, Modo tenet earn Wigot Delinc et facit omnem consuetudinein prseter waitam , et reddit monachis de Sapalanda 30f/." 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 quoedam mans[io], qua? 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 Rj'm. 5 Ric. I. new ed. Bloom- Li jus soz la coudroie! field, in his History, seems to liave mis- IIu, et liu, et liu, et hu ! understood this word. Spelman, in his A bien pres I'ocirroie." &c. Gloss., voc. waite-fee, gives an instance, Chansons de Flore et Blancliefleur, 13* temp. Eliz., of a tenure by " waite-fee et sifecle. Chants Historiques, par Leroux castle-garde." de Lincy, le Serie, p. 139. ed. IS-ll. ^ Tlie horn of the castle watchman was Paris. ^Iy readers will hardly require to troublesome to noctivagous lovers : be reminded that the waits, whose sponta- " Gaite de la tor ! neous music disturbs our sleep before Gardez entor Christmas, are souvenirs of the armed Les murs, se Deus vos voie ; watch, who guarded the repose of King Cor sont i sejor William at Siirewsbury, of the burghers Dame et seignor, and nobles at Winchester, and of the abbot El larron vont en proie. {La gaite come.) and monks of St. Germain, in the days o f Hu, et hu, et hu, et hu ! Charlemagne. Je I'ai veu, VOL. in. Y V