astors and general
population of the valleys, yet it must be acknowledged that the many
difficulties associated with this grand enterprise would hardly have been
surmounted, had it not have been for the presence on the spot of so true a
friend to the Vaudois, and so able an ally of the noble projector of the
college, as his military colleague.

Not only did he provide a building for the grammar school whose location
had been one of the difficulties connected with the establishment of the
college, but he also superintended the erection of the buildings, and gave
a sum of ten thousand francs towards the cost. Dr. Gilly acknowledges these
things in a letter to the moderator under date of April 28th, 1835. He also
was instrumental, with Dr. Gilly, in founding a grammar school at Pomaret.
This school was subsequently enlarged by the efforts of the Rev. Dr.
Stewart, of Leghorn, another warm-hearted friend of the Waldensian Church.

In 1847 Beckwith erected a group of houses, just above the college, for the
residence of the professors. But important as were the reformations sought
and obtained in the educational machinery of the valleys, yet it was almost
as needful to improve the character of the ecclesiastical edifices used by
the Vaudois. Few were such as fitted the purposes to which they were set
apart. There is nothing surprising in this when we consider the
circumstances of the Vaudois through so many centuries. But, easy as it is
to account for the lack of edifices appropriate to the decent and reverent
worship of Almighty God at the period referred to, the thing itself was
nevertheless a misfortune. Hence in 1843 Beckwith offered to restore the
temple at Rodoret, which was in a most deplorable state. The temple was not
alone in its need; the parsonage-house, a very crazy building, was
destroyed by an avalanche on the 16th of January, 1845, burying beneath its
ruins the pastor, his wife, their little child, aged five months, and
servant, the only living creature escaping being the pastor's dog! The new
temple being finished in March, Beckwith commenced operations for the
erection of a suitable presbytery. The total cost of the new building was
thirteen thousand francs, contributed chiefly by Beckwith, but with the
help of the commune, Dr. Stewart, of Leghorn, and friends in Dublin and
America.

His next work was the restoration of the church at Rora. This matter was
accompanied by a pleasing incident. He was speaking o