JAMES LEES-MILNE

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James Lees-Milne 1908 - 1997

Milne was invalided out of the army in 1941, it was then that he rejoined the staff of the National Trust. He visited countless stately homes and historic buildings and was passionate about architecture. The diaries he wrote over his lifetime stretch to 12 volumes, these diaries tell of his experiences in a quite uninhibited way, vivid first-hand account of country house life as well as sketches of accentric owners and Milne's friends in literary and social circles. Milne is remembered for his wit, candour and sharp observation. Hailed 'the Twentieth century Pepys'.

The titles of Milne's impressive set of Diaries were taken from Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan written in 1797.

KUBLA KHAN
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 – 1834

In Xanada did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alpha, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdles round:
And here were gardens bright and sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree,
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! That deep romantic chasm, which slanted
Down green hills athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! As holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath the waning moon, was haunted
By woman wailing for the demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil, seething,
As is this earth in fast thick pants breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced,
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
O chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale, the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the   mingled measure,
From fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on the dulcimer she played,
Singing on Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ‘twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome of air,
That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Bibliography of James Lees-Milne's 12 volumes of Diaries:

1.	Ancestral Voices	1975
2.	Prophesying Peace	1977
3.	Caves of Ice	1983
4.	Midway on the Waves	1985
5.	A Mingled Measure	1994
6.	Ancient as the Hills	1997
7.	Through Wood & Dale	1998
8.	Deep Romantic Chasm	2000
9.	Holy Dread	2001
10.	Beneath a Waning Moon	2003
11.	Ceaseless Turmoil	2004
12.	The Milk of Paradise	2005