"Ralph Freman MP, having acquired the Hamels estate, situated alongside the Old North Road near Braughing in East Hertfordshire, in 1713, financed the creation of typical early eighteenth-century formal gardens there. The work that went into the laying-out of those gardens was recorded in a 'Memoir' or journal written by the Reverend George Smith, vicar of Braughing, which has been transcribed in this latest volume from the Hertfordshire Record Society. The Memoir, now in the British Library, contains a wealth of information of interest to garden historians, recording, for example, the planting of various trees in the Wilderness, the digging of ornamental canals, the construction of various water features, the creation of the bowling green and the provision of 'iron casement frames' for the 'melon glasses'. However, it also contains much information relating to general estate management in the early eighteenth century...."Book jacket back cover. A history of the Freman family and their home Hamels in Hertfordshire. Ralph Freman (1666-1742), son of Ralph Freman (1627-1714) and Elizabeth Aubrey (1644-1721), married Elizabeth Catesby and they had three children. They moved into Hamels in 1713. Includes the memoirs of the Vicar of Braughing, George Smith, from 1713-1733, which includes many references to Hamels.