These assertions are all hazarded in the hope that they will pass current with those who know no better, and will be unnoticed by those who do. But first a town may be _on_ a hill and yet _in_ a hollow. If the reader will look at lieutenant Godwin’s Atlas,[10] or at Gage’s Plan of Oporto, or at Avlis’ Plan of that city—all three published by Mr. Wylde of Charing Cross—he will find that Oporto, which by the way is situated very much like the hot-wells at Bristol, is built partly on the slopes of certain heights partly on the banks of the river; that it is surrounded on every side by superior heights; and that consequently my description of it, having relation to the Bishop’s lines of defence and the attack of the French army, is militarily correct. Again, if the reader will take his compasses and any or all of the three maps above-mentioned, he will find that the Barca de Avintas is, as I have said, just three miles from the Serra Convent, and not nine miles as the reviewer asserts. Lord Wellington’s despatch called it four miles _from Oporto_, but there is a bend in the river which makes the distance greater on that side. Such being the accuracy of this very correct topographical critic upon two or three examples, let us see how he stands with respect to the third. _Extracts from marshal Victors Official Report and Register of the Battle of Medellin._ ‘Medellin is situated upon the left bank of the Guadiana. To arrive there, a handsome stone-bridge is passed. On the left of the town is a very high hill (_mamelon tres elévé_), which commands all the plain; on the right is a ridge or steppe (_rideau_), which _forms the basin of the Guadiana_. Two roads or openings (_débouchés_) present themselves on quitting Medellin; the one conducts to Mingrabil, the other to Don Benito. They traverse a vast plain, bounded by a ridge (_rideau_), which, from the right of the Ortigosa, is prolonged in the direction of Don Benito, and Villa Neuva de la Serena.’... ‘The ridge which confines the plain of Medellin has many rises and falls (_movemens de terrain_) more or less apparent. _It completely commands (domine parfaitement) the valley of the Guadiana_; and it was at the foot of this ridge the enemy’s cavalry was posted. Not an infantry man was to be seen; but the presence of the cavalry made us believe that the enemy’s army was _masked behind this ridge_ of Don Benito.’... ‘Favoured by _this ridge_, _he could manœuvre his troops_, and carry them upon any point of the line he pleased _without being seen by us_.’