Note 140 — SAMUEL FOOTE,
Reading edition
And this reminds us of the frequent squabbles, almost immediately forgotten by both parties, which used to take place between Foote and Macklin. Thus, on one occasion, in order to test Macklin's boast as to his retentive memory, Foote ran off the well-known nonsense story: 'So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie,' etc. Macklin broke down in his attempt to remember them, but the lines themselves have since formed, on more than one occasion, the test of a scholar's power in turning them into Latin or Greek verse; witness the following attempt, which I have found in Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. ix. p. 11:
'Protenus illa foras sese projecit in hortum Pluribus e caulis foliis resecaret ut unum, Dulcia conficeret coctis quo crustula pomis; Quum subito attonitam vadens impune per urbem, Monstrum horrendum ursæ visum est per claustra tabernæ. Inseruisse caput patulisq: adstare fenestris— "Usque adeo ne omnis saponis copia defit?"'
and so on.