Manx Cat, The

When people go to the Isle of Man,
They must sing an Isle of Man song,
At least so I've heard; so I thought I'd look out,
And find a new subject to write one about.
This morning, I saw a Manx Cat on a wall:
I thought to myself "This'll do!"
So I wrote a chorus about a Manx cat,
And I mean to try to you

Manx Cat, Manx Cat,
Why have you got no tail?
You seem all wrong,
With nothing behind you to steer you along.
Manx Cat. Manx Cat.
Something you seem to lack
Without your tail, we really can't tell
If you're going or coming back!

There's something sad about poor Manx Cats
They've got to be like that for life,
We've all seen false hair and false teeth up for sale,
But no one has invented as yet a false tail
You've heard of the Manx man of course with three legs
I don't know if that's only bluff,
But still it's not fair to give Manx men to much,
While Manx Cats have not got enough!

A song copied out by hand into the notebook of the Harry Cox, one of the most widely respected English traditional singers. It may or may not be significant that it is the first song on page 1 of his first manuscript song book… It seems reasonable to assume that it may have appeared in his repertoire at some point but I’ve not able to find any evidence of him singing this song. The words written out in the manuscript are exactly the same as those in the Weekly Dispatch so it is very likely to have been copied out from a printed source.

From the 1870s the availability of steam ships from Liverpool made The Isle of Man a favourite holiday destination for the working classes of Northern England:

The Isle of Man is but little known to the higher classes of holiday-makers, though it is annually visited by many thousands of strangers. Those who flock thither are almost all persons of the lower middle class, and operatives from the thickly-populated towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire. They make but a short stay, they ramble over the island, and their loud provincial tones are heard in boisterous merriment. …. You see the best of the working class of the North away from their factories and workshops, and though your taste may be oftentimes offended at rude jokes and noisy merriment, yet they are essentially an independent and hard-working class, even in their amusements. 

The Spectator (London), December 1880

A series of music halls and theatres were built to entertain the holiday makers and many stars of the Halls would spend time every Summer appearing there. The popularity of these holidays was reflected in the repertoire of Music Hall artists with songs like this one, others include:

• Has anyone here seen Kelly ? (Florrie Forde)
• What happened to the Manx Cat’s tail? (Florrie Forde)
• Flanagan (Florrie Forde)
• They can’t find Kelly (Billy Merson)
• I’m the man that buried Flanagan (Billy Williams)
• I met Mary Ellen at the Isle of Man (Ella Retford)

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics and Sheet Music: Weekly Dispatch (London),  24 August 1913, p14
• The Isle of Man, The Spectator (London), December 11, 1880, p 1583

Last Updated on June 16, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: June 16, 2022