f Wales. Some of them have since been
demolished, but the most important, the pagoda, still survives. The
publication in a handsome volume of the designs for these buildings
assured his position in the profession. He was employed to teach
architectural drawing to the prince of Wales (George III.), and gained
further professional distinction in 1759 by the publication of his
_Treatise of Civil Architecture_. He began to exhibit with the Society
of Artists in 1761 at Spring Gardens, and was one of the original
members and treasurer of the Royal Academy when it was established in
1768. In 1772 he published his _Dissertation on Oriental Gardening_,
which attempted to prove the inferiority of European to Chinese
landscape gardening. As a furniture designer and internal decorator he
is credited with the creation of that "Chinese Style" which was for a
time furiously popular, although Thomas Chippendale (q.v.) had published
designs in that manner at a somewhat earlier date. It is not
unreasonable to count the honours as divided, since Chippendale
unquestionably adapted and altered the Chinese shapes in a manner better
to fit them for European use. To the rage for every possible form of
_chinoiserie_, for which he is chiefly responsible, Sir William Chambers
owed much of his success in life. He became architect to the king and
queen, comptroller of his majesty's works, and afterwards
surveyor-general. In 1775 he was appointed architect of Somerset House,
his greatest monument, at a salary of L2000 a year. He also designed
town mansions for Earl Gower at Whitehall and Lord Melbourne in
Piccadilly, built Charlemont House, Dublin, and Duddingston House near
Edinburgh. He designed the market house at Worcester, was employed by
the earl of Pembroke at Wilton, by the duke of Marlborough at Blenheim,
and by the duke of Bedford in Bloomsbury. The state coach of George
III., his constant patron, was his work; it is now in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Although his practice was mainly Classic, he made Gothic
additions to Milton Abbey in Dorset. Sir William Chambers achieved
considerable distinction as a designer of furniture. In addition to his
work in the Chinese style and in the contemporary fashions, he was the
author of what is probably the most ambitious and monumental piece of
furniture ever produced in England. This was a combined bureau,
dressing-case, jewel-cabinet and organ, made for Charles IV., king of
Spain, in 1793. These