Note 173 — Chapter I

I spent two interesting hours at Redinha on September 29, 1910, going round the battle-ground, guided by Mr. Reynolds of Barreiro. The village is most irregularly built, and the way to the bridge not obvious, the streets being tortuous and narrow. The place is easy to defend, but not easy to get out of. A courteous denizen of Redinha, Mr. J. J. Leitão, presented me with an unexploded British shrapnel shell, which he had got out of the sand of the river-bed just above the bridge. Several more had been found on this spot; they must have been thrown by the pursuing British artillery at the French column hurrying over the bridge, and had fallen short, into the water. Each contained thirty-two balls, but the powder had decayed into an impalpable red dust. The shell that we got is now in the United Service Museum.