WAIN, CHARLES'S. 



WALES, PRINCE OF. 



waived or abandoned the good*, they became waif, and were forfeited 

 to the crown, or to the lord of the manor, if be were entitled to wait 

 No good* could become waif which were not in possession of the felon 

 at the time of his flight Therefore, if he concealed the good., or 

 placed them in a bouse, or, for instance, left a hone at an inn in 

 pledge for hii meat, and afterwards fled, the good* did not become 

 waif. 



It wai nnnnsnsry. in order to complete the title of the crown or lord 

 of the manor to waif, that it tbould be taken possession of by come 

 one on hi* behalf ; otherwise the original owner wai not barred from 

 recovering hi* good* at any period of time, and if he aeued them first, 

 they remained his property. The forfeiture of goods waived wns 

 instituted for the purpose of stimulating the person robbed to moke 

 fresh pursuit after the folon, and so, if possible, catch him with the 

 goods upon him. And in further encouragement of such pursuit, it 

 was part of the law, that if the owner succeeded, within a year and R 

 day, in attainting the thief, he was entitled again to recover his goods 

 from the crown or the lord of the manor, even though they had been 

 reduced into possession. The restriction of the character of waif to 

 goods waived during the flight was because goods which had been con- 

 cealed by the felon would afford no track of his course, and might 

 very possibly escape the search of the owner, even though he did 

 make fresh pursuit It is said also that the goods of foreign 

 merchant* could not become the subject of waif, because a fureiguer, 

 ignorant of our language and usages, could not be expected to act with 

 the same despatch and etfoct as a native. Lord Coke distinguishes 

 between waif which was stolen property, and the goods which wvu- 

 the property of a person who fled for a felony. These latter were 

 always forfeited on proof and finding by a jury of that fact, even 

 though the party were acquitted of the felony. Part of the inquiry, 

 therefore, on the trial of a prisoner for felony, was whether or not lu- 

 lled for it. If the jury found that he did, his goods were forfeited, 

 whstever might be the verdict as to his guilt This was either because 

 of the presumption which hi* flight raised, that he really had com- 

 mitted the offence, though it could not be legally proved against 

 him ; or, according to Mr. Justice Foster, because his flight 

 tended to stop or embarrass the course of justice against the real 

 offender. If he was killed during his flight, the coroner's jury 

 inquired as to his flight as well as respecting the cause of his death. 

 By 7 ft 8 Geo. IV., a 29, s. 67, the court before whom a prisoner is 

 convicted has power in all cases, without restriction as to time, to 

 order restitution of stolen property to the owner, except as to negoti- 

 able instruments in the hands of parties who, without notice, hare 

 given value for them : and by 7 & 8 Oeo. IV., c. 28, s. 5, the jury are 

 no longer to be charged to inquire whether a prisoner fled for treason 

 or felony. The consequence u that no forfeiture can now be incurred 

 by such flight 



(6 Co. 109 ; Com. TXt>. tit Waife.') 

 WAIN. CHARLES'S. [URSA MAJOB.] 



WAITS is a name now applied only to those itinerant musicians 

 who, in most of the large towns of England, especially London, go 

 round the principal streets at night for some time before Christmas, 

 play two or three tunes, call the hour, then remove to a suitable dis- 

 tance, where they go through the same ceremony, and so on till four or 

 five o'clock in the morning. 



The word, which was formerly spelled icayghte or imiV/A/c, is com- 

 mon to all the Teutonic languages (German, toacht : Uutch, icagt ; 

 Danish, vagHl ; Swedish, vaJct ;) and the root is the same as the Anglo 

 .Saxon went*, to wake, and varian (pronounced wakian), to watch, and 

 the English watt and valck. 



The wayghte, or wayte, was originally a minstrel watchman, and the 

 kings of England, as well as the mayors of large corporate cities and 

 towns, seem to have employed them in preference to common watch- 

 men. By a document in Hymer's ' Fcodera,' vol. ix., " De Minstricllin 

 propter Solatium Kegis providendin " it appears that in the reign of 

 Edward IV., "a wayte that nightelye from Mychelmas to Shrere 

 Tborsday pipethe the watobe within this courte fower tymes, in the 

 somere nygbtes three times, and make the bon gayte at every chambere 

 doare, and office, aa well as for feare of pyckeres and pillers ; he eateth 

 in the halle with the mrnstrielles ;" it then goes on to state his allow- 

 ance of bread, ale, coals, and so forth, for each ni^lit. 



The waits seem to have been always distinct from the common 

 watch, which was called the marching watch, and never, we believe, 

 the waits. At a later period, the term waits seems to have been 

 restricted to the land of iiiiimtrcLt kept by the city of London and 

 other Urge cities and towns. We read of the City waits frequently, 

 from their attendance on the C'ity |*ianU, and of the waits of Bom 

 wark and other places. In 'The Tatler,' No. 222, a writer from 

 .ham complains that the young men of fashion there "make 

 love with the town music," and that " the waits often help him 

 through bis courtship." The waits, or stipendiary town-musicians, 

 have fur many years, we believe, ceased to exist in every corporate city 

 sod town in England, though there are yet town-bands, who, at least 

 in some oases, are stipendiary musicians. 



(I'.rond's Popular Antiqvititt, by Ellis ; Strait's .V^orf* and PaHimet, 

 by Hone.) 



WAIWODK. [\VATWODF-] 

 W \ K I'.-v ii.i'M.iy fcHtivals which are kept onoe a year In some of 



the rural districts of England. They are the remains of certain 

 religious wakes, wakings, or vigils, followed by a festival, which were 

 onoe held in all the country parishes. Previous to the Reformation in 

 England, every church, when it was consecrated, was dedicated to 

 some particular saint or martyr, and every rural pariah had its wake 

 every year, and most of them had two wakes, one on the day of 

 dedication, the diet dedications ,*ad another on 'the birth-day of the 

 saint, the propria frttirilat suited'. These church festivals seem to 

 have been established by the early popes and bishops soon after the 

 introduction of Christianity into England, in the place of the heathen 

 festivals to which the people had been accustomed. 



In the Saxon times the church method of reckoning the day was 

 from sunset to sunset, so that the Sunday and festival and fast days 

 began about six o'clock on the evening preceding the day itself, and 

 the eve was in fact the commencement of the sacred day, when Un- 

 people were accustomed to repair to the church and to join in tin- 

 religious exercises. These night devotions were called in Anglo-Saxon 

 wtreeoA, wakes, and the night itself was called the eve (the Anglo- 

 Saxon trfyn, or avn), which explains why Christmas-eve and 

 eves of sacred days precede the day itself. On these occasions the 

 floor of the church was strewed with rushes and sweet-smelling herbs 

 [Krsii-BKAiiiMi], the altar and pulpit were adorned with green ! 

 and flowers, and tents were erected in the churchyard, winch 

 supplied with provisions and ale. The eve was dedicated t 

 the following day to festivity. These festivals gradually deviated in 

 most parishes from the original purposes for which they were instituted. 

 The inhabitants of neighbouring parishes attended each other'* 

 festivals, and others came from a distance, especially if the saint was of 

 high reputation ; hawkers and pedlars frequented them with their 

 wares, and the religious wakes were converted into fairs and scenes of 

 dissolute indulgence. The wakes continued to be kept in this way till 

 1536, when Henry VIII., by an act of convocation, ordered the festival 

 of the saint's day to be abolished, and that of the i!<-<li. 

 church to be kept on the first Sunday in October in all the p... 

 But the saint's day was the favourite festival of the pt-<>|,k 

 gradually ceased to attend the festival of the dedication, and it has long 

 been entirely discontinued, while the saint's day festival still subsists 

 in tho altered form of a country wake. 



(Strutt's Sporti and Puitimet, by liune; Brand's Popular AiitiyuUitt, 

 by Ellis.) 



WALES, PRINCE OF, is the title usually borne by the eldest son, 

 or heir apparent, of the British king or queen. This title originally 

 distinguished the native princes of Walus ; but after the entire con- 

 quest of Wales and its union with England, the title was transferred 

 to the sons of the kings of England. Henry III., in the ai'th year of 

 his reign, gave to his son Edward (afterwards Edward I.) tin- prin- 

 cipality of Wales and earldom of Chester, but rather as an oil 

 trust and government than as a special title for the heir apparent to 

 his crown. There is a tradition that Edward, when he became king, 

 to satisfy the national feeling* of the Welsh people, promised to give 

 them a prince without blemish on his honour, a Welshman by birth, 

 and one who could not speak a word of English. In order to fullil hi-; 

 I literally, he had sent his queen, Eleanor, to be conlincd 

 at Carnarvon Castle, and he invested with the principality her sou, 

 Edward of Carnarvon, then an infant, and caused the barons and great 

 men to do him homage. Edward was not at that time the . 

 eldest son, but on the death of his brother Alphonso he become heir 

 apparent, and from that time the title of Prince of Wales has ever been 

 home by the eldest son of the king. The title, however, is nut in- 

 herited, but is conferred by special creation and investiture; and has 

 not always been given immediately after the birth of the heir apparent . 

 E I ward II. did not create his son Prince of Wales till he was ten yearn 

 . .mil Edward the Black Prince was not created until ho was about 

 thirteen. 



The eldest son of the king is by inheritance Duke of Cornwall. 

 K in.ml the Block Prince was first created duke of Cornwall on the 

 death of John of Eltham, his uncle, who was the last earl of Cornwall ; 

 md by the Kraut under which the title was then ci.ni'cm-d, in Hu- 

 ll th Edward III., the dukedom is inherited by the eldest living son 

 and heir apparent. If the duke succeed to tho crown, the duchy vests 

 in his eldest son and heir apparent ; but if there be no eldest M 

 dukedom remains with thu king, the heir presumptive being in n<> 

 case entitled tJ it The Black Prince was also created by liu father 

 carl of Chester and Flint. By the statute 21 !::.], ,,d II.. c. !>, the 

 earldom of Chester was erected into a principality, and it was . 

 aiue time enacted that it should be given only to the king's eldest son. 

 Although that statute, with all the others in that parliament, wax 

 repealed by the 1st Henry IV., c. 3, the < .ul.l.ini has ever since 

 jiven together with the priurip.i!iu "i \Vales. 



The antiquity of the title of Prince of Wales and its regular succes- 

 sion are, as it were, a confirmation .if the parent's present right and of 

 the prince's own nearness in succession to the crown. Thus on tin . 

 death of Edward the Black Prince, F.dward 111. immediately made his 

 grandson Prince of Wales. Richard I II., as soon as he came t 

 throne, created his son Prince of Wales, in order t n i>i . 



usurpation. Henry VII., again, on the death of his son Arthur, 

 created his next son, Henry, I'rinct- of Wales. Henry VIII., having no 

 son, created his daughter Maty, Princess of Wales; anil after her 



