most important of these was ‘An Heroic Epistle to Sir W. C.,’ followed by ‘An Heroic Postscript’ to this epistle, in both of which the satire was keen and the verses pointed. These lively pieces were published anonymously, and their authorship was for some time a matter for conjecture. There is now no doubt that they were by William Mason, the poet [q. v.], the first book of whose ‘English Garden’ was published in 1772. According to Warton, the ‘Heroic Epistle’ was ‘cut out by Walpole, but buckramed by Mason.’
At this time Chambers was architect to the king and queen, and comptroller of his majesty's works (an office afterwards changed to that of surveyor-general), and his fame and prosperity knew no serious check. He moved from Poland Street to Berners Street, and thence to Norton (now Bolsover) Street, where he died. He had also an official residence at Hampton Court, and a country house called Whitton Place, near Hounslow. In 1774 he revisited Paris, and in 1775 he was appointed architect of Somerset House at a salary of 2,000l. a year. The present structure was designed by Chambers for the accommodation of government offices, the Royal Society, and the Royal Academy. The late Mr. Fergusson [q. v.] calls Chambers ‘the most successful architect of the latter half of the eighteenth century,’ and Somerset House ‘the greatest architectural work of the reign of George III.’ The best part of the design, according to this authority, ‘is the north, or Strand, front, an enlarged and improved copy of a part of the old palace built by Inigo Jones, and pulled down to make way for the new buildings.’ ‘The south portion of this front is also extremely pleasing,’ but after a severe criticism of the river front he adds: ‘It was evident, however, that the imagination of Chambers could rise no higher than the conception of a square and unpoetic mass.’
Although not so much employed as Robert Adam [q. v.] in building great country houses for the nobility and gentry, he designed town mansions for Earl Gower at Whitehall and Lord Melbourne in Piccadilly, Charlemont House, Dublin, and Duddingston House, near Edinburgh. He was the architect of the Albany in Piccadilly, and of the Market House at Worcester. He was employed by Earl Pembroke at Wilton, by the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, by Lord Claremont at Marino in Ireland, and by the Duke of Bedford in Bloomsbury. He also made some additions and alterations (Gothic) to Milton Abbey, near Dorchester. As he grew old Chambers retired somewhat from public business, and enjoyed more freely the society of his friends, among whom were such celebrated men as Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, Burney, and Garrick. He was a member of the Architects' Club, which met at the Thatched House, St. James's. In his later years he suffered much from asthma, and after a long and severe illness he died at his house in Norton Street, Marylebone, 8 March 1796, and was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. Chambers had five children, four daughters and one son, who married a daughter of Lord Rodney. He left a considerable fortune.
[Gent. Mag. 1796; European Mag. 1796; Hardwick's Memoir of the Life of Sir William Chambers; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Cunningham's Lives of British Artists, 1831; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Boswell's Life of Johnson; Fergusson's Hist. of Modern Architecture; Edwards's Anecdotes.]
CHAMBERS, WILLIAM (1800–1883), Edinburgh publisher, was born at Peebles on 16 April 1800. His early life is described in the notice of his brother Robert [see Chambers, Robert]. He attended the same schools, and read the same books. He removed with the family to Edinburgh, and in 1814 was apprenticed to Sutherland, a bookseller in Calton Street, for five years at 4s. a week. As his father went to live some miles out of town, he was obliged to support himself. His lodgings at the West Port cost him 1s. 6d. per week, 1s. 9d. he paid for his food, and 9d. was reserved for miscellaneous expenses. He thought himself fortunate in an arrangement he concluded with a baker whose bakehouse was situated in the (now removed) Canal Street. The baker and Chambers were fond of books, and it was agreed that the boy was to read to him and his men in the morning; ‘a penny roll newly drawn from the oven’ was to reward the reader. ‘Seated on a folded-up sack in the sole of the window, with a book in one hand, and a penny candle stuck in a bottle near the other,’ Chambers read ‘Roderick Random,’ and other works of the older novelists. He also found time to read a little on his own account. In May 1819 he finished his apprenticeship, and immediately started business for himself as a bookseller in Leith Walk. The agent of a London bookseller to whom he had been useful gave him 10l. worth of books on credit; these he wheeled down in an empty tea-chest, and having erected a few rough shelves and a bookstall, he opened shop. He began to bind the books for himself, then he bought an old printing-press and types for 3l. On this he printed several
