Higgs was travelling with a female companion, but she found herself being warned by other women that if she tramped for any length of time it was necessary ‘to take up with a fellow’.14 Many women did, and therefore accepted the sexual advances of other vagrants in order to seal a relationship. Their ‘free’ behaviour was then used as further proof to reinforce the belief held by the police and the press that ‘all vagrant women were prostitutes’.
