A beautiful illustration a Victorian Christmas Carol singers in the snow - one plays the cello and one an oboe - very atmospheric - a lovely period illustration.

"Waits or Waites were British town pipers. From medieval times up to the beginning of the 19th century, every important British town and city had a band of Waites. Some other countries in Europe also had waits. They were called Stadtpfeifer in Germany and Pifferi in Italy.
Their duties varied in different towns and at different times in history. One of their most important jobs was to play at certain times of day so that people knew what the time was. They often played from the top of church towers. Sometimes they were also guards, watching from the towers so that they could spot any danger. They woke people up in the mornings by playing music in the streets.
The instruments they played also varied. Mostly they were loud wind instruments such as the shawm. The shawm was a musical instrument of the woodwind family that was played in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The modern oboe was developed from the shawm. Like the modern oboe, the shawm was played by blowing into a double reed. It was usually made from one piece of wood, with a flare at the end (like a trumpet). It sounded very loud, and was mostly used out-of-doors.
The tradition of singing Christmas carols in return for alms or charity began in England in the seventeenth century after the Restoration. The town musicians or 'waits' were licensed to collect money in the streets in the weeks preceding Christmas, the custom spread throughout the population by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up to the present day." (Wikipedia)