Italian Volcanoes

It is often said at Middleton Hall that you are a bona fide Middleton historian when you cannot go on holiday or watch a television programme without coming across a connection to Middleton’s history! Recently Channel 5 aired a two-part documentary series called “Volcano with Dara O’Briain”. One may think that there would be little chance of connecting volcanoes with Middleton’s history but in 1664 two residents of Middleton Hall, Francis Willughby and John Ray, happened to be visiting the same key volcanoes that featured in the programme: Campi Flegri; Mount Vesuvius; Stromboli; and Mount Etna.

In April 1663, Willughby, Ray, Philip Skippon and Nathaniel Bacon had begun a scientific tour of Europe, which was the first of its kind. During their Tour they made copious notes that were presented on their return to the Royal Society and were published. The term volcano was only coined in the 17th century and they never used it.

On the 23rd April 1664, they visited Solfatara, which is part of the Campi Flegri. There they observed several vents from where smoke issued out, which Ray described to be like that of a furnace. They gathered flowers of sulphur and sal ammoniac from around the vents and tried to set fire to the flowers of sulphur. However, it did not burn and they wondered what property prevented this. They commented that if they thrust a sword into the smoke and suddenly drew it back, it was thickly covered with drops of water. They noticed that the ground they walked on was very hot but also sounded hollow, so they threw great stones against the ground which produced an echoing noise. Furthermore, they commented that they could perfectly hear “the hissing and boiling of some melted mineral, metal or other liquor” just under their feet. Ray wrote: “One that should see this smoke, hear this noise, and feel the heat, would wonder that the mountain should not suddenly break out into a flame”.

On the 26th April they visited Vesuvius. They hired a barefooted guide to take them to the top. They wrote that all the ground about the sides of it was covered with cinders and pumice stones that had been cast out in previous burnings. They observed great channels, like gullys made by “sudden torrents and land-floods”, which they were told were made by water thrown out at the top of the mountain in the conflagrations. Near the top they stated that the ascent was steep and very toilsome. At the top they looked down into “a great hollow within the mountain” and at the bottom of it saw a circle of earth out of which came some “smokes”. Ray thought them “inconsiderable” and “seemed not to threaten any future eruption”.

On the 28th April the group parted ways. Willughby and Bacon headed for Rome and Spain whilst Ray and Skippon headed for Sicily and Malta. Ray and Skippon boarded the S. Gertruda, a Dutch vessel, to take them to Sicily. On the night of the 29th/30th April they passed by the island of Stromboli. They commented that as they passed within sight of Stromboli, they saw the mountain aflame and smoke rising from it. Ray commented that Stromboli would burn with such rage that no man dared to live upon it. As the Channel 5 programme showed, that may have been the case then but not now.

On their return from Malta, on 20th May, Ray and Skippon hired a guide, a soldier (to protect them from banditi) and horses to go up to the summit of Etna. They commented that they observed in some places well cultivated country, the soil enriched by the slag and cinders cast out by the mountain. However, in other places there was nothing but rocks and cinders. In one very rocky and burnt place they saw the ruins of houses caught in a previous eruption. They continued their ascent until they reached the snowline, where it was so thick that they could not proceed any further. They were about four miles short of the top. Ray commented that one thing they found particularly wonderous was the great ring of snow around the mountain, but yet the top itself was completely bare of snow.

1669 eruption of Mount Etna, by Lambert van den Bos, reproduced by Peace Palace Library, The Hague, Netherlands, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ray published his account of their travels a number of years later, in which he also made a comment about something that happened after their visit. In 1669, Etna had an explosive eruption. Ray wrote that he thought it “was the greatest and most horrid” eruption of Etna. In fact, it remains the largest ever recorded eruption of the volcano. Accounts from that time claimed that Etna had blown its top and reduced in height to below the snowline, but modern investigations have thrown doubt on that claim.

Further Reading: John Ray, Travels through the Low Countries, Germany, Italy & France, 1738, pp. 235-6, 239, 269-70.

Philip Skippon, "An Account of a Journey made thro' part of the Low Countries, Germany, Italy & France", in Awnsham and John Churchill (ed.), A Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 6, 1732, pp. 598-9, 609-10, 627.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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