68 Sir william Hamilton’s Account of 
vius <p> \ but what is raoft extraordinary (as there was but 
little wind during the eruption of the eighth of Auguft) 
minute afhes fell thick that very night upon the town of 
Manfredonia, which is at the diftance of an hundred 
miles from Vefuvius . 
Thefe faffs feem to confirm the extreme fuppofed- 
height of the column of fire that iffued from the crater 
of Vefuvius la.ft Sunday night, and are greatly in fupport 
of what we find recorded in the hiftory of Vefuvius with 
refpecft to the fall of its afhes at an amazing diftance, and 
in a fhort fpace of time, during its violent eruptions. 
We proceeeded from Caccia-bella to Ottaiano, which 
is a mile nearer to Vefuvius, and is reckoned to contain 
twelve thoufand inhabitants. Nothing could be more 
difmal than the fight of this town, unroofed, half buried 
(p) The prince of Monte Mileto told me, that his fon, the Duke of Popoli, 
who was at Monte Mileto the 8th of Auguft, had been alarmed by the fhower 
of cinders that fell there, fome of which he had fent to Naples, weighing two 
ounces^; and that ftohes of an ounce had fallen upon an eftate of his ten miles 
farther off. Monte Mileto is about thirty miles from the volcano. 
(q) The Abbe galiani, well known in the literary world, told me, that 
his lifter, a nun in a Convent at Manfredonia, had wrote to enquire after him, 
imagining that Naples muft have been deftroyed, when they, at fo great a dif- 
tance, had been fo much alarmed by a fhower of minute afhes, which fell on 
that city at eleven o’clock at night, the 8th of Auguft, as to open all the 
churches, and go to prayers. As the great eruption happened at nine o’clock at 
night, the afhes muft have travelled an hundred miles within the fhort fpace of 
two hours, 
under 
I 
