ublick, but with an
Eye to my particular Correspondent who has sent me the following Letter,
which I have castrated in some Places upon these Considerations.

_SIR_,

'Having lately seen your Discourse upon a Match of Grinning, I cannot
forbear giving you an Account of a Whistling Match, which, with many
others, I was entertained with about three Years since at the _Bath_.
The Prize was a Guinea, to be conferred upon the ablest Whistler, that
is, on him who could whistle clearest, and go through his Tune without
Laughing, [to] which at the same time he was [provoked [2]] by the
antick Postures of a _Merry-Andrew_, who was to stand upon the Stage
and play his Tricks in the Eye of the Performer. There were three
Competitors for the Ring. The first was a Plow-man of a very promising
Aspect; his Features were steady, and his Muscles composed in so
inflexible a Stupidity, that upon his first Appearance every one gave
the Guinea for lost. The Pickled Herring however found the way to
shake him; for upon his Whistling a Country Jigg, this unlucky Wag
danced to it with such a Variety of Distortions and Grimaces, that the
Country-man could not forbear smiling upon him, and by that means
spoiled his Whistle, and lost the Prize.

The next that mounted the Stage was an Under-Citizen of the _Bath_, a
Person remarkable among the inferior People of that Place for his
great Wisdom and his Broad Band. He contracted his Mouth with much
Gravity, and, that he might dispose his Mind to be more serious than
ordinary, began the Tune of _The Children in the Wood_, and went
through part of it with good Success; when on a sudden the Wit at his
Elbow, who had appeared wonderfully grave and attentive for some time,
gave him a Touch upon the left Shoulder, and stared him in the Face
with so bewitching a Grin, that the Whistler relaxed his Fibres into a
kind of Simper, and at length burst out into an open Laugh. The third
who entered the Lists was a Foot-man, who in Defiance of the
_Merry-Andrew_, and all his Arts, whistled a _Scotch_ Tune and an
_Italian_ Sonata, with so settled a Countenance, that he bore away the
Prize, to the great Admiration of some Hundreds of Persons, who, as
well as my self, were present at this Trial of Skill. Now, Sir, I
humbly conceive, whatever you have determined of the Grinners, the
Whistlers ought to be encouraged, not only as their Art is practise