The room so designated is entered from the Lower Corridor near the north end. It is forty by forty-five feet in area, and is seated to accommodate two hundred and fifty persons. This room is used in the first course of instruction incident to the Endowment. As seen in the accompanying illustration it is plainly furnished, without wall-ornament or other embellishment. The portal hung with curtains, which appears in the back-ground of the picture, leads into the Garden Room.
See pages [185], [186]: also [99]-[101].
PLATE 13.—THE GARDEN ROOM
As already seen, the Lower Lecture Room is marked by simplicity and plainness; the Garden Room is characterized by richness and beauty. Here ceiling and walls have been painted by master artists, who have depicted with effective skill the distant glory of sky and cloud, and the nearer beauties of earthly life. Landscape scenes cover the walls from floor to ceiling: there are gardens and glens, hills, valleys, and brooks, fruits and flowers, birds and other living things, all appearing amidst a setting of beauty, plenty, and peace. Lions and lambs are reposing in companionship, while insect and bird fly together.
The room represents the earth as it was before sin entered and brought with it the curse; it is the Garden of Eden depicted in miniature. On one side is a richly-upholstered altar, upon which rests the Holy Bible.
See page [186].
