ds he wrote of his early
years--"Books, not playthings, filled my hands in childhood. At twelve I
was deep, not only in poetry and fiction, but in encyclopaedias." Robert
had been destined for the church, but this design had to be abandoned
for lack of means. The family removed to Edinburgh in 1813, and in 1818
Robert began business as a bookstall-keeper in Leith Walk. He was then
only sixteen, and his whole stock consisted of a few old books belonging
to his father. In 1819 his elder brother William had begun a similar
business, and the two eventually united as partners in the publishing
firm of W. & R. Chambers. Robert Chambers showed an enthusiastic
interest in the history and antiquities of Edinburgh, and found a most
congenial task in his _Traditions of Edinburgh_ (2 vols., 1824), which
secured for him the approval and the personal friendship of Sir Walter
Scott. A _History of the Rebellions in Scotland from 1638 to 1745_ (5
vols., 1828) and numerous other works followed.

In the beginning of 1832 William Chambers started a weekly publication
under the title of _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_ (known since 1854 as
_Chambers's Journal of Literature, Science and Arts_), which speedily
attained a large circulation. Robert was at first only a contributor.
After fourteen numbers had appeared, however, he was associated with his
brother as joint-editor, and his collaboration contributed more perhaps
than anything else to the success of the _Journal_.

Among the other numerous works of which Robert was in whole or in part
the author, the _Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen_ (4 vols.,
Glasgow, 1832-1835), the _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_ (1844), the
_Life and Works of Robert Burns_ (4 vols., 1851), _Ancient Sea Margins_
(1848), the _Domestic Annals of Scotland_ (3 vols., 1859-1861) and the
_Book of Days_ (2 vols., 1862-1864) were the most important.
_Chambers's Encyclopaedia_ (1859-1868), with Dr Andrew Findlater as
editor, was carried out under the superintendence of the brothers (see
ENCYCLOPAEDIA). The _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_[1] contains a
series of admirably selected extracts from the best authors of every
period, "set in a biographical and critical history of the literature
itself." For the _Life of Burns_ he made diligent and laborious original
investigations, gathering many hitherto unrecorded facts from the poet's
sister, Mrs Begg, to whose benefit the whole profits of the work were
gener