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 saunax, 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 lord chamberlain, attend ambassadors from crowned heads to their audiences, and in public entries. The gentlemen of the privy chamber were instituted by Henry VII.