At what is very nearly the precise textual center of The History of Tom Jones (Book 9, chap. 2), Jones and the Man of the Hill view the prospect from "Mazard-Hill," a fictitious peak of the Malverns. Rather than admiring "one of the most noble prospects in the World"—which Fielding coyly declines to describe—Jones is instead "endeavouring to trace out [his] own Journey hither." By omitting a description, Fielding foregrounds the responses of Jones and the Man of the Hill to the prospect. The Man of the Hill, who has seen the "wondrous Variety of Prospects" in Europe and its "Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Vegetables," but almost nothing of its cultures and people, is interested only in the prospect itself, and indeed will shortly show his indifference to the screams of Mrs. Waters. Jones, on.....
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