Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/162

146 step ranging to the outer line of towers. From these courts doors admit to any part of the building.

"The size of the first large room is one hundred and twenty feet long by eighty feet wide; the height reaches nearly to the second string course. The room is arched over in the center with an elliptical arch which drops at its flank ten feet, and has thirty-eight feet span.  The side ceilings have one-fourth elliptical arches which start from the side walls of the main building, sixteen feet high, and terminate at the capitals of the columns or foot of center arch, at the height of twenty-four feet.  The columns obtain their bearings direct from the footings of said house; these columns extend up to support the floor above.

"The outside walls of this story are seven feet thick. The space from the termination of the foot of the center arch to the outer wall, is divided into sixteen compartments, eight on each side, making rooms fourteen feet by fourteen, clear of partitions, and ten feet high, leaving a passage six feet wide next to each flank of center arch, which is approached from the ends, These rooms are each lighted by an elliptical or oval window, whose major axis is vertical.

"The second large room is one foot wider than the room below; this is in consequence of the wall being but six feet thick, falling off six inches on the inner, and six on the outer side. The second string course provides for this on the outside.  The rooms of this story are similar to those below.  The side walls have nine buttresses on a side, and have eight tiers of windows, five on each tier.

"The foot of the basement windows are eight inches above the promenade, rise three feet perpendicular, and terminate with a semi-circular head. The first story windows have twelve feet length of sash, to top of semi-circular head.  The oval windows have six and one-half feet length of sash.  The windows of the second story are the same as those below.  All these frames have four and one-half feet width of sash.

"The pedestals under all the buttresses project at their base two feet; above their base, which is fifteen inches by four and a half feet wide, on each front, is a figure of a globe three feet eleven inches across, whose axis corresponds with the axis of the earth.

"The base string course forms a cope for those pedestals. Above this cope the buttresses are three and a half feet, and continue to the height of one hundred feet.  Above the promenade, close under the second string course, on each of the buttresses, is the moon, represented in its diflferent phases.  Close under the third string course, or cornice, is the face of the sun.  Immediately above is Saturn with her rings.  The buttresses terminate with a projected cope.