Note 109 — PART II

The land face has a double ditch, and an esplanade of five or six hundred yards in breadth, which towards the river is marshy and swampy, and utterly unfit for military operations. Towards the sea, and for some miles along the coast, is an epaulement,109 thrown up when in expectation of an attack from the English in 1804. On this esplanade formerly stood a church, from the tower of which the English under Sir W. Draper fired into the heart of the city:110 it is now razed. There is also a small battery called Charles the Fourth’s, on an elevated spot in the marshy ground; it is about 350 yards from the fortifications and is mostly used as an exercising battery. Another redoubt of stone stands at the southern point of the outer ditch, and flanks the sea shore to a considerable distance to the southward: it also serves to cover the head of the outer ditch, which is not carried round the sea face, apparently for want of room, as its crest would nearly approach high water mark in this part.