CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM, Is said to have derived his descent from a Scotch family of the name of Chalmers, who were barons of Tartan in France. He was born however in 1726 at Stockholm in Sweden, whither his grandfather, en eminent merchant, had proceeded some time before to prosecute certain claims he had upon the govern ment of that country. At two years of age ho was brought to England, and put to school at Ripon in Yorkshire. We next rend of his making a voyage to China as supercargo, in tho service of the Swedish East India Company. This must have been when he was a very young man, for at the age of eighteen he is raid to have settled in London, and taken up the profession of an architect and draughts man. In these capacities, having no formidable rivalry to encounter, ha soon obtained considerable reputation. At length he was intro duced to the Earl of Bide, and by his influence appointed drawing muter to the young Prince of Wales, afterwards George f11, Soou after the accession of that king he was employed to lay out the royal gardens at Kew. In this task he displayed without restraint that predilection for the Chinese style, both of gardening and nrchitecturo, of which ho had already given intimation in a work, entitled 'Designs for Chinese Buildings,' published in 1759. In 1765 ho published iu large folio volume, 'Maus, Eievatioue, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Oardeue and Buildings at Kew, in Surrey.' Meanwhile he had also, by n villa in the Italian style, which he erected at Roehampton for the Earl of Ilesborough, and by various other buildings, obtalued much reputation and employment as au architect. In 1771 he was merle a knight of the Swedish order of the Pular Star. In 1772 he
publiehod his 'Dissertation on Oriental Gardening.' Thiel Is another vindication of Chinese tastes and fashions, end is memorable as having exposed the author to the satiric laah of the poet Mason: to the first pert of whose ' English Garden,' published immediately before, It was ehepecttul to be iotonded as a sort of answer and con futation. The piece In which noon took his revenge (if indeed he was the author, which be never nekuowledgod) was the famous 'Heroic Epistle to Sir 1Villinin Chambers, Knight, Comptroller General of his Majesty's Works, nod author of a late " Dissertation on Oriental Gardeuine; " enriched with explanatory Notes, chiefly extracted from that elaborate performance.' This production appeared 1n 1773, and was followed in ]774 by a short continuation, under the title of ' An Heroics Postscript.' In 1775 Sir William was appointed to superintend the rebuilding of Somerset House, which is his best work. In 1791 he published hie 'Treatise on Civil Architecture,' which has teen several times reprinted. Sir William died ou the 8th of March 1796, leaving a large fortune. As an architect, although his tasto was fantastic, he frequently allowed considerable ingenuity, and also displayed n certain grandeur in his designs. His staircases in par ticular used to be much admired. After Somerset house, among Chambere's most successful efforts, are the mansion which be built for the Marquis of Abercorn at Duddiugstone, near Edinburgh, and Milton Abbey in Dorsetshire, which he built in the gothic style for Lord Dorchester.