3 SEPTEMBER 1988, Page 24

Looking Ahead

Seeing in the muddled distance of pedestrians a form that seems, at first, to be prone across the paving stones, I'm filled with apprehension and sympathy.

This is what it is to be older, to feel the shiver in the bone that comes from seeing another of the herd pulled down by fate — even in the cheery figure of this pavement artist, finishing a rock-star profile for the young initiate.

Hugh Macpherson