The story known by folklorists was collected by researcher T. W. Thompson from teller Taimi Boswell, a Romani, at Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, January 9, 1915.
The widow, who was spinning a coat for her, told her to ask for a white satin dress with gold sprigs, which must fit her exactly.
She took it, but the servants would not stand it, being jealous of her beauty and her getting such a position when she left the road; instead, they made her clean dishes and hit her on the head with the skimmer.
The young master fell in love with her, but she said only that she came from a place where people hit her on the head with the skimmer, and when the ball was over, she used the mossycoat to go back.
Katherine Briggs classified the tale as type 510B, "The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and of Stone" (sic), and commented that the story was known in England as Catskin.
[4][5] In his 1987 guide to folktales, folklorist D. L. Ashliman classified the tale, according to the international Aarne-Thompson Index, as type AaTh 510B, "A King Tries To Marry His Daughter",[6] thus related to French tale Donkeyskin, by Charles Perrault, and other variants, such as Allerleirauh, Cap O' Rushes, The Bear, The She-Bear and The King who Wished to Marry his Daughter.