James Lees-Milne
James Lees-Milne, who saved the country house, died on December 28th, aged 89
THE old houses of England, James Lees-Milne once wrote, meant for him “far more than human lives”. In the 1930s, when Mr Lees-Milne began his mission of mercy to save what he could of “the England that mattered”, the old houses were falling like a property Passchendaele. The owners could no longer afford to run their vast estates, many of which had been designed for feudal economies. Some owners seemed themselves in a state of decay. Mr Lees-Milne recalled going to a party at a stately home where the owner entertained his guests by slashing at paintings with a whip and shooting the heads off statues in the garden. He was appalled. It brought home to him how he cared for “the continuity of history”. It was, he said, a turning point.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “James Lees-Milne”
Obituary January 3rd 1998
From the January 3rd 1998 edition
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