3-004-026 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Eruption of Mount Vesuvius near the foot of the hill, between Resina and Torre de Greco, as seen from the Marinella at Naples, 1861. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. Roskilly. 'In two or three minutes the smoke had reached the height shown in the Illustration...[a] new crater...burst out on the old lava...The aspect of the village of Torre del Greco is something fearful...Not one house was left uninjured, and a great number were destroyed...the horizon was perfectly obscured, the mouth of the bay hidden by smoke and ashes...[Vesuvius] burst out in double fury, throwing up stones and its ashes...obscuring the midday sun...you could hardly obtain a better idea of the destruction of Pompeii, as given by an eyewitness, Pliny, than the scene that was presented to our view...The whole way from Naples was full of carts of household furniture belonging to those who had deserted the town and fled from the eruptions and earthquakes...Vesuvius was...making most appalling noises, as if the earth was shaken to its very centre...ashes and smoke [were thrown up], and...red-hot stones, as big as one's head, fell around us...Ten minutes afterwards it burst forth, and the place on which I had been standing was literally covered with red-hot stone or lava...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.