Bishop Berkeley would probably have understood why, when asked for directions, people give such diverse answers to reach the same place: each has seen this or that or the other, each has been struck by this colour or that colour, by this landmark or by that, each has their own directional body-clock; in short each carries their own picture of reality around with them and assembles it when needed. Far better then to accompany the requester, in accordance with the English wont – as Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, may Allah have mercy on him, related from the daughter of King Muhammad IV – to the place they are heading for. Anne Brontë, near whose grave this encounter took place, would no doubt have agreed: she did not belong to a matrilegal society, despite her illumination of women, and she had impeccable manners.