The people of Garrat, a hamlet between Wandsworth and Tooting, once chose a president to defend their rights over a small common. Because this happened at a general election, they went on electing a mock mayor with every new parliament, and the joke grew into a burlesque of real elections with handbills, oaths and comic candidates such as watermen and publicans. Chambers says crowds of over 80,000 came, and Foote made a farce of it, The Mayor of Garrat.
The Mayor of Garrat
Printed under 20 May · Garratt, Wandsworth, Surrey
No longer kept
sometimes upwards of 80,000 persons assembled to take part in or enjoy the fun.
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, pp. 659-662. Read the original
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