Diary.
[Education] Johnston, Margaret (“Peggy”), Principal of Ocklye School, Crowborough. Diary. In Garden
Book and Diary from Liberty & Co. Ltd., London and Paris. 1920-22.
Manuscript diary of educator Peggy Johnston, living at Alice de Rothschild’s house in Grasse on the Côte
d’Azur, with references to Waddesdon Manor and the painters Mary Cassatt, Simon Bussy and Charles
Maresco Pearce. Written in France and England over three periods: February 1, 1920 to October 27, 1920;
February 15 to September 5 1921; July 1 to September 28, 1922 (England).
8vo.; 114 pp.; decorative binding; worn.
Johnston won the Hester Rothschild Prize at University College London in 1911, and went on in 1925 to
establish and serve as Principal of the progressive Ocklye School, Ocklye House, Crowborough. (In 1931
Johnston and her school were commended alongside A. S. Neill in Ethel Mannin’s Common-Sense and the
Child, and in 1934 Mannin wrote the introduction to Johnston’s account of Ocklye, Some Adventures with
a School.) According to the London Gazette, Johnston’s father the Grantham banker Henry Hammond
Johnston was resident at Les Romarins at the time of his death on February 20, 1932 (his wife Julia Maria
Johnston had died on September 16, 1924).
The text is divided into three sections: February 1, 1920 to October 27, 1920 (29pp.), written in France;
February 15 to September 5, 1921 (42pp.), written in France and England; 1 July to 28 September 1922 (24 pp.), written in England. Affixed to most of the other 19 pp. are a number of postcards of Grasse and
environs, a couple addressed to Johnston at Les Romarins (also Villa Romarins), Boulevard Thiers, Grasse;
with other material affixed such as clippings relating to the theatre and a couple of black and white
photographs.
An evocative diary, written in a vivid style by an educated, highly-cultured and sensitive Englishwoman
straddling English and French culture in “l’entre-deux-guerres.”
The diary begins with the Johnston family (Peggy, ‘Dad,’ Lee and Meg) staying at a cottage in a vineyard
on the French Riviera. The first entry reads: ‘1920. | Feb 1st. Tollemaches arrived, & the sun came out!
they love the cottage & the country & every thing. Want to work in the vines, & sing, and climb, & go to
concerts, and generally to enjoy life.’ Two weeks later she reports ‘Great excitement’ as ‘M. Ronston asks
us to buy the house which we cant do - so probably we must leave. Miss Rothschild offers us her Romarins
at the same rent, so we shall probably go there.’ As the Johnston’s settle into their new home, Peggy
describes a cultured life, with a constant stream of middle class visitors. Peggy apparently teaches
elocution (she later goes ‘To the Infant School at Milbank where Miss Smith gave a reading lesson to show
her classification of vowel sounds which she is getting typed for me’), and has a number of pupils.
On September 7, 1920 she describes herself as ‘mean, selfish, selfcentred, a thorough cad,’ after recording
an argument following the reading of her diary by ‘Meg’: ‘She didnt tease me at first - She was hurt, angry
- Why? Was she jealous - more likely she was disappointed in me [...] I suppose Im afraid that some day I
ll
Page
36
shall show myself too rotten for even her to put up with. The question of all this rot is, am I going to
continue to keep this ridiculous list of breakfasts dinners & suppers, or give it up altogether [...] And if I
do, shall I go on showing it to Dad & Meg?’ (In one of the few references to her father, she writes on 10
September 1920: ‘When I asked Dad if he couldnt teaze [sic] me, because I missed it so much, he said
“When I knew Meg very little she once said to me “They tell me you spoil Peggy but it seems to me you
spend your time scoring off her.”’
The entry for March 20, 1921 gives an indication of her lifestyle and sensitivity: ‘We went to Mongins (as
Dad was no worse) by the 12.30 train H. K. & Emma Walker & I. & walked up to
Print Inquire
