MEDALS AND SCHOLARSHIPS.

The Hon. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, M. P. for the University of Cambridge, England, acting as representative of the association which presented to Virginia the statue of "Stonewall" Jackson, by Foley, transmitted, in 1876, the sum of £243 16s. 1d., being a surplus of the statue fund, to be invested as the foundation of a further memorial of the great Confederate soldier. By authority of the honored donors, and in execution of their wishes, this fund was dedicated to be invested and perpetuated as an inalienable and inviolable capital, the annual income from which shall be expended in procuring two prizes of gold, to be engraved and designated as "The First Jackson-Hope Medal," and "The Second Jackson-Hope Medal," respectively, and to be bestowed annually, as rewards of merit, upon the two most distinguished graduates of the Virginia Military Institute in the order of their distinction.

It was deemed most becoming that this fund should be dedicated to the institution of learning which Jackson, as instructor and disciplinarian, so long and conspicuously adorned, his official connection with which was severed only by his illustrious death; and it is equally appropriate that its designation shall forever associate the munificence of his English admirers with his imperishable name.

As long as the Virginia Military Institute stands it will prize, as one of its prerogative distinctions, the peculiar relation which it bears to the history of General T. J. Jackson. Here for a long time he labored as a professor. From her parade ground, in command of the corps of cadets, he made his first march in his career of glory, and when his career was closed by a soldier's death, to the corps of cadets was assigned the solemn charge of conducting his remains to the resting place selected by himself with his dying breath.

By the generosity of those English gentlemen, whose munificence presented to the Commonwealth of Virginia a majestic statue of her illustrious son, this distinction for the Institute has been signalized and rendered conspicuous and perpetual. The two costly medals provided for in the benefaction, to be bestowed hereafter, annually, upon the first and second distinguished graduates of the Institute, will connect their names with that of Jackson, and will be cherished heirlooms for their descendants.

Two scholarships have been established by the board of visitors on the endowment of General Philip St. George Cocke, for some time president of the board of visitors, and two on the endowment of Messrs. J. K. Gilliat & Co., of London, England. These scholarships entitle the holders to free board, tuition, and room-rent, and are valued each at the sum of $275.

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CHAPTER XXII.

WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY.

BY PROFESSORS WHITE AND HARRIS.

The history of Washington and Lee University is connected with the early settlement of the beautiful "Valley of Virginia." The lands lying contiguous to the headwaters of the James and Shenandoah Rivers were occupied, about a century after the settlement at Jamestown, by an energetic, adventurous, and brave race of people, distinguished for their devotion to civil and religious liberty. These hardy "Scotch-Irish"1 1 Among these Scotch-Irish settlers of the Valley of Virginia was Robert Alexander, a master of arts of Trinity, who settled in Augusta County, 1743. In the Historical Sketch of the Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Washington and Lee University (1749-1888), it is said that the germ of this institution was "a mathematical and classical school, called the Augusta Academy, established in 1749 by Robert Alexander, and first located two miles south-west of the site of Greenville, in Augusta, and near the interlacings of the headsprings of the Shenandoah on the eastward and of the James River on the westward. It was the first classical school in the Valley of Virginia, and was continued by an uninterrupted succession of principals and assistant instructors, on successive sites, increasing in usefulness and influence, until it gradually developed into Washington College [now Washington and Lee University]." Robert Alexander is said to have been the predecessor of Dr. Brown and Mr. Graham, as principal of Augusta Academy. The early history of Augusta Academy is very obscure, and the editor of this report has been much perplexed by the varying accounts of recognized authorities, some of which he has endeavored to disentangle in the next chapter, on the "Bibliography of Washington and Lee University."

The following account of Scotch-Irish educational beginnings in Virginia and at the South has been taken, at the suggestion of the Commissioner of Education, from The Early History of the Scotch and Irish Churches, and their Relations to the Presbyterian Church of America, by Rev. J. G. Craighead, D. D.:

"The Presbyterian colonists of Virginia also made as ample provision for the education of their youth as their circumstances permitted. In most of their congregations pastors established classical and scientific schools. West of the Blue Ridge such a school was carried on at New Providence [in Augusta County] by the Rev. John Brown; while east of the Ridge [in Louisa County] a similar institution was conducted by the Rev. John Todd.

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"The first of these, after removals to Mount Pleasant, where it was known as Augusta Academy, and then to Timber Ridge as Liberty Hall, finally became Washington College. The widespread desire for literary institutions of a high order led the Presbytery of Hanover, as early as 1771, to take measures to establish an academy in Prince Edward County, which subsequently was chartered as Hampden-Sidney College. These institutions, so humble in their origin, awakened such a thirst for knowledge in the minds of large numbers of the youth of that State, that not a few

occupants of the Blue Mountains of Virginia were among the bravest of Revolutionary soldiers. In the darkest days of our struggle for independence General Washington expressed his confidence in their patriotism and courage; saying that, if all other resources should fail, he might retire with a single standard to Augusta, and rally a band of pat riots who would meet the enemy on the line of the Blue Ridge, and there establish the boundary of a free empire in the West. Augusta embraced the fine country, in the heart of the valley, now bearing that name, and the neighboring counties of Rockbridge and Botetourt, lying southwest and immediately on the headwaters of the James. Two companies of soldiers from Augusta were with General Washington at Braddock's defeat and at the battle of the Great Meadows.

These valley people, distinguished as they were for patriotism, were not less devoted to the cause of religion and education, and had hardly established places of abode when they erected the temple of worship and the school-house, the men quarrying the stone and hewing the timber while their wives and daughters carried the sand, packed in sacks on horses, sometimes to the distance of six or eight miles.

William and Mary was the only college in Virginia at this early period, and as it was located in the lower portion of the State, the Scotch-Irish settlers of the valley determined to establish a high school in their section.

of them afterward became eminent for their literary attainments, and were distinguished in the pulpit and at the bar.

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"Classical schools of great excellence were organized by Dr. David Caldwell at Buffalo, and afterward at Guilford, N. C., in which many of the most eminent men of the South-lawyers, statesmen, and clergymen were educated; by Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, a thorough scholar and earnest student, whose school at Thyatira, N. C., bore the significant name of Zion Parnassus, and in which there was a department for the education of school teachers, and provision was made to have poor and pious young men taught free of expense, of whom 45 entered the pulpit; by the Rev. William Bingham, at Wilmington, and subsequently at Chatham and Orange; by Dr. Joseph Alexander, at Sugar Creek; by Dr. Alexander McWhorter, principal of 'Queen's Museum,' in whose hall the debates preceding the Mecklenburg Declaration were held, and which the Legislature of North Carolina afterward chartered under the name of Liberty Hall Academy. Other classical and scientific schools were taught by Rev. Dr. Robinson, at Poplar Tent; by Dr. Wilson, at Rocky River; by Dr. Hall, at Bethany; by the Rev. Henry Patillo, at Orange and Granville; and by Dr. Waddell, at Wilmington, under whose instruction some of the ablest civilians of the State were educated.

"A large number of Presbyterian families moved at an early day from Virginia and the Carolinas into Tennessee, who carried with them their love of education. The Rev. Samuel Doak, a graduate of Princeton College, opened a classical school in Washington County [Tenn. ], which was afterwards incorporated under the name of Martin Academy, and finally became known as Washington College. This was the first literary institution established in the Mississippi Valley. The books that formed the nucleus of the college library were transported from Philadelphia over the mountains in sacks on pack-horses. After acting as president of the college for several years, Mr. Doak resigned and removed to Bethel, where he founded Tusculum Academy, and continued to be the active advocate and patron of learning, as he had ever been the decided friend of civil and religious liberty."