This town is situated in a little valley on the banks of Klip River, and is almost completely surrounded by mountains, high and precipitous. Modderspruit runs from the east through a narrow valley between Lombard's Kop and Pepworth Hill, and empties into Klip River near the town. The distance from the tops of the mountains and from the crest of Pepworth Hill was, on an average, about 6,000 yards. General Sir George White, with his 13,000 trained soldiers and fifty cannon, held and occupied all the mountains, but ignored Pepworth Hill, lying to the north-east at a distance of about 6,000 yards from the town. Nickolson's Nek on the north did not command the town, so that, too, was not occupied by the British. Some low hills to the north-west were also unoccupied, so it was plain what we had to do in the first instance. The Free Staters came in through Van Reenen's Pass and occupied the low hills to the north-west and a part of Nickolson's Nek. The Transvaalers were on the hills on the north, Pepworth Hill, and along the ridge near Modderspruit, and in an easterly direction from the town. Ladysmith with its surrounding mountains is certainly a most excellent position both for offensive and defensive operations; and had a good commander been in Sir George White's place, he could have easily defeated and routed the Boers on their first appearing. It was White's stupidity and inability that locked him up in Ladysmith, and kept him there, just as it was someone's great love of humanity that prevented us from taking the town on October 30th. The Irish Brigade and Ermelo Commando were placed in the centre, on Pepworth Hill, as a guard to Long Tom, two French field guns and two pom-pom maxims. Christian De Wet with some Free Staters, and Erasmus with some Transvaalers, together with the Johannesburg police, were in and about Nickolson's Nek on the right, Lucas Meyer and Schalk Burger, and Captain Pretorius with his cannons on our left, occupied a long ridge and some small hills near the eastern part of Lombard's Kop. The total Boer forces did not exceed 8,000 men with ten cannon. [Illustration: A PART OF THE IRISH BRIGADE AT LADYSMITH.]