other only by planks on edge; without separate accommodation for dressing or undressing; and with coarse "straw or cocoa fibre in a loose tick," and a rug "sufficient for warmth."[310] To this was added, by the General Order of March 3rd 1866, a uniform dietary "for wayfarers" in these wards of bread and gruel only,[311] thus definitely marking the abandonment, so far as London was concerned, of all attempt, either at refusing a night's lodging to able-bodied healthy males, or at doing anything more or anything different for the honest unemployed wayfarer than for the professional tramp. [304] Mr. Sotheron Estcourt (President of Poor Law Board), 15th July 1858, _Hansard_, vol. 151, p. 1500. "The nightly occupants of the vagrant ward interfere with the regular inmates, harass the officers, and at some seasons and in some workhouses render it impossible to preserve the order or to carry out the ordinary regulations of the establishment" (Circular of 30th November 1857, in Eleventh Annual Report, 1858, p. 29). [305] _Ibid._ pp. 30-31. [306] Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, 15th July 1858; _Hansard_, vol. 151, p. 1500. [307] Minute of 23rd December 1863, in Sixteenth Annual Report, 1863-4, p. 31. [308] 27 & 28 Vic. c. 116 (1864); 28 & 29 Vic. c. 34 (1865); Circular of 26th October 1864, in Seventeenth Annual Report, 1864-5, p. 77. [309] The first expedient was to cause the sums so expended to be refunded by the Metropolitan Board of Works. In 1867 this was replaced by the Common Poor Fund. [310] Circular of 26th October 1864, in Seventeenth Annual Report, 1864-5, p. 78. It may be added that from 1863 onward, the police acted as assistant relieving officers for vagrants in the Metropolis. The police complained of the filth and vermin brought to the police stations by applicants for relief, and they were relieved of the duty in 1872 (Report of Departmental Committee on Vagrancy, 1906, Cd. 2852, vol. i. p. 12). The police also acted for some rural boards of guardians, the police stations serving as "vagrant relief stations," e.g. at Bakewell, where they were discontinued in 1869 (MS. Minutes, Bakewell Board of Guardians, 15th March 1869). [311] General Order of 3rd March 1866, in Nineteenth Annual Report, 1867, p. 37.