Jennie G ~ That is a fascinating ref to Tom Jones: I had completely forgotten it & it does give an unexpected gloss to the age of the song, which, acc to Wiki, was the first sung by George Leybourne, the famous music-hall singer ~ best known for song 'Champagne Charlie is my name'. I had clerly missed the ref in Fielding & assumed it to be an early cockney music hall piece of the early-ish C19. Have you by any marvellous chance a chapter ref to Tom Jones ~ it's too vast a work to try and locate a ref by skimming & I haven't succeeded in finding it by googling.

~M~