Tramping goes way back, I guess. Much farther than this, I’m sure.

In the fourteenth century, in the aftermath of the Black Death (1348-9), when labour was in short supply and wages rose steeply, several Acts were passed aimed at forcing all able-bodied men to work and keep wages at their old levels. These measures led to labourers roaming around the country looking for areas where the wages were high and where the labour laws were not too strictly enforced. Some also took to begging under the pretence of being ill or crippled. In 1349, the Ordinance of Labourers prohibited private individuals from giving relief to able-bodied beggars. In 1388, the Statute of Cambridge introduced regulations restricting the movements of all labourers and beggars. Labourers wishing to move out of their own county “Hundred” needed a letter of authority from the “good man of the Hundred” — the local Justice of the Peace — or risked being put in the stocks.