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A summary of Volume XVII
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Garden-Making and the Freman Family: A Memoir of Hamels 1713-1733 edited by Mrs Anne Rowe

Hamels is a modest country house and estate created at the end of the sixteenth century near the village of Braughing and beside the Old North Road in rural east Hertfordshire. The house and its landscape have undergone several major transformations over the centuries, one of the most radical occurring early in the eighteenth century when Hamels became the home of one of the county's 'Knights of the Shire' - one Ralph Freman Esq (1666-1742). Two engravings of the house and its grounds, one dating from 1700 and the other from 1722, capture the changes wrought by Freman at Hamels and effectively provide 'before and after' views of the creation of elaborate formal gardens typical of the early eighteenth century. The work that went into the creation of these gardens was recorded in a 'Memoir' or journal written by the Reverend George Smith, vicar of Braughing, the transcription and publication of which is the primary purpose of this volume.

The Memoir, now in the British Library, was started in 1714 and continued in more or less detail until 1733. The information it contains is of particular interest to garden historians recording, for example, the planting of 'Silver, Spruce and Scotch fir' in the Wilderness, the creation of the bowling green and the provision of 'iron casement frames' for the 'bottom of the melon glasses'. However, as well as recording the creation of the gardens, the Memoir also contains much information relating to general estate management in the early eighteenth century, including the renovation of estate buildings, the exploitation of local resources - woodland, timber, sand and gravel, and also brick-making and pond management. The Reverend Smith commented on extreme weather events and recorded the names of numerous craftsmen, mostly local men, who worked at Hamels. For example, Isack Tottenham was employed on various occasions making garden seats, tall hurdles and a bee house and also building an arbour.

An in-depth Introduction to this volume describes the history of the Hamels estate from its origins in the late sixteenth century to the end of the 20th century. The late seventeenth century gardens of nearby Aspenden Hall, the Freman family seat where Ralph Freman grew up, are also examined and the gardens he created at Hamels are considered in the context of other early eighteenth century gardens in Hertfordshire. A summary of what little is known of the Reverend George Smith is followed by an analysis of the contents of his Memoir under seven main headings: the house and estate buildings, the gardens, the park, sources of trees for the gardens and park, estate management, people mentioned and the weather. The final part of the Introduction examines the surviving evidence of Freman's gardens; although they existed only a few decades, much of the layout can still be recovered from parchmarks in periods of drought and from earthworks.

An appendix to this volume is planned to demonstrate the garden-making interests of another member of Ralph Freman's family. This will consist of extracts transcribed from a journal written by Freman's eldest son, William, in which he records his observations on about thirty English country houses and their gardens during the period 1722-45 - a period of great interest in English garden history.

The range of activities recorded in the Reverend Smith's Memoir make this volume of interest not only to garden historians, but also to social historians of the early eighteenth century and family historians with east Hertfordshire connections.

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