CHAMBER, in building, a member of a lodging, or piece of an apartment, ordinarily intended for sleeping in; and called by the Latins cubiculum. The word comes from the Latin camera; and that, according to Nicod, from the Greek κωμάς, vault or curve; the term chamber being originally confined to places arched over.
A complete apartment is to consist of a hall, anti-chamber, chamber, and cabinet.
Privy-Chamber. Gentlemen of the privy-chamber, are servants of the king, who are to wait and attend on him and the queen at court, in their diversions, &c. Their number is forty-eight, under the lord-chamberlain, twelve of whom are in quarterly waiting, and two of these lie in the privy-chamber.
In the absence of the lord-chamberlain, or vice-chamberlain, they execute the king's orders: at coronations, two of them personate the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy; and six of them, appointed by the
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lord-chamberlain, attend ambassadors from crowned Chamber-heads to their audiences, and in public entries. The gentlemen of the privy-chamber were instituted by Henry VII.