It seemed to me, driving south from the Highlands the
other day, that hitch-hikers were much more plentiful than they used to be. In the Welfare State, with its emphasis on planning and security, there ought,-theoretically, to be no place for these damp, gesticu- lating figures who rely on their own luck and other people's charity to get them home from Windermere to Wigan. I suppose the exorbitant cost of all forms of travel is the main factor which impels these respectable young ladies and gentlemen—who would not dream of begging for food or money—to beg for transport ; but, though some doubtless are moved by the spirit of adventure, I think a good many are rather feckless cadgers who exhibit their bare knees and mountainous packs upon the roadside (as Eastern mendicants show off their sores) in the hope of getting something for nothing and saving the fare home, which they have all the time in their pockets. But one ought not to think hardly of them, for lifts are not easily come by. Not every driver wants his back seat filled with streaming anti-gas capes and sodden rucksacks ; and the more apprehensive type is deterred by groundless fears of harbouring a juvenile delinquent with a cosh.
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