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Petticoat and Gown

.

The dress. When the gown was looped up, the petticoat was an important item of dress.

The poppy is said to have a red petticoat and a green gown; the daffodil, a yellow petticoat and green gown; a candle, a white petticoat; and so on in our common nursery rhymes—

1 “The king’s daughter is coming to town,

With a red petticoat and a green gown.”

2 “Daffadown dilly is now come to town,

In a yellow petticoat and a green gown.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.