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Medieval writers did not separate words from pictures. They were equivalent and interchangeable. The picture was no more visual than the word and the word no more textual than the picture. Travelling missionaries who spread the gospel, assembled their evangelising orations as they travelled from place to place, drawing on their experiences of places visited along the way. The Latin word tractare, meaning to draw out or pull, gives us the English word tract, usually denoting a religious message. Later pilgrimages resembled a moving liturgy processing through the landscape. Pilgrims visiting holy sites walked through scripture. Stories told along the way would cite past characters as if they were still alive and able to impart wisdom to those journeying in the present (Ingold 2011).

The pattern of places we make in our minds, their spatial array, show how we travel and behave in the landscape without recourse to conventional maps. They help us explain the distribution of points and spaces to those unfamiliar with our territory (Kitchen et al 2000). Finding our way is a task which we may undertake every day. It is essential to survival. Spatial understanding makes sense of the natural world upon which we rely (Tvensky et al 2000). Our mind maps can share common general elements. They may be composed of paths, landmarks, junctions, boundaries and territories (Lynch 1960). Each category may have a different emphasis relative to other categories. Sometimes paths may be more important than boundaries, but research suggests that landmarks may be the most important element for wayfinding purposes (Tvensky et al 2000). The image of our landscape has its own hierarchy of paths, landmarks, junctions, boundaries and territories. Some are more important than others, irrespective of dimension and cartographic emphasis.