THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

When one comes to think of it, tramps are a queer product and worth thinking over.  It is queer that a tribe of men, tens of thousands in number, should be marching up and down England like so many Wandering Jews.  But though the case obviously wants considering, one cannot even start to consider it until one has got rid of certain prejudices.  These prejudices are rooted in the idea that every tramp, ipso facto, is a blackguard.  In childhood we have been taught that tramps are blackguards, and consequently there exists in our minds a sort of ideal or typical tramp – a repulsive, rather dangerous creature, who would die rather than work or wash, and wants nothing but to beg, drink, and rob hen-houses.

Orwell/Paris