ABSTRACT
One group of workhouse inmates was always treated differently from the rest. Whereas most of the regular inmates experienced improved conditions during the nineteenth century, the casual poor shared few of the benefits. In the mid-nineteenth century, trampers included seamen who had spent their pay and were off to another port, navvies moving from gang to gang, and Irish seasonal labourers making their way home, as well as the destitute Irish who emigrated permanently during the famine. The Poor Law Board experimented first in London, where the Houseless Poor Act of 1864 provided central finance for Metropolitan casual wards and thus encouraged guardians to provide better accommodation. Vagrants were one rung below the able-bodied settled poor. The able-bodied workhouse inmate in the nineteenth century had been on much the same footing in regard to tasks as the casual, though with the advantages of more comfortable lodging and better food.
