This is a short story by Agatha Christie. I don't normally devote whole posts to short stories, but here we have something of a curious case.

It was a Japanese friend who first made me aware that Christie had written a story set in the Isle of Man.

And this is it. Initially published in 1930, Manx Gold was the product of a commission. The TT races were already drawing crowds to the Island, but the tourist authorities were keen to showcase its many other attractions. So they paid Christie to write a story that functioned as a treasure hunt, leading visitors to different spots as they followed the clues.

The rewards for participants were quite significant. If you found one of the four hidden snuffboxes, you could exchange it at the tourist board office for GBP 100. That was quite a sum in those days (the article cited above, written in 2021, reckons the modern equivalent would be GBP 6,800).

The story first appeared in five instalments in The Daily Dispatch, a Manchester-based paper. It was preceded by an awareness-raising advertising campaign, and followed by more detailed clues.


Peel Castle makes an appearance, albeit opaquely

***

The story, per se, is a little unsatisfactory. It features cousins Fenella and Juan (two good Manx names there), and it's narrated by the latter. They would like to marry, but are too poor. Their uncle, Myles Mylecharane, who lives on the Isle of Man, dies, leaving the two young people his estate -- if, that is, they can decode the instructions, and find the treasure.

Just to pep things up a bit, there are two other potential legatees, who will also have access to the clues: A ne'er-do-well nephew, Ewan Corjeag; and a dubious cousin, Doctor Fayll. Uncle Myles does give Fenella and Juan a head start, though.

Things liven up considerably when Corjeag ends up dead, apparently after trying to break into the house where the clues are lodged.

Because it accompanied a real-time treasure hunt, however, the story gives you very little idea as to how our heroes disentangled the successive challenges. Even at the end, there's no explanatory round-up.

And, on the way through, Christie is very free with that annoying "don't-tell-the-reader" trick:

"'What's this?'
"'The name of a firm that might help us.'
"'Bellman and True. Who are they? Lawyers?'
"'No -- they're more in our line -- private detectives.'
"And I proceeded to explain."

End of...

A day goes by, and then we hear: "We had returned from our quest successful for the second time."

Seriously...?

Given that there's so little for the reader to build on, I'm not too apologetic about the following spoiler. Our would-be married couple (somehow or other) does succeed in cracking the four clues, and the baddie is apprehended.

The ending:

"'Now,' I said, 'we can be married and live together happily ever afterwards.'
"'We'll live in the Isle of Man,' said Fenella.
"'On Manx Gold,' I said..."

***

Manx Gold was re-published in 1997 in a collection of short stories entitled While the Light Lasts. That edition, I'm told, provides an afterword by Tony Medawar, which to some extent elucidates the clues. You can find the details here.

Solutions 1 and 2 (respectively Derby Fort on St Michael's Isle, between the middle two cannons; and a bench overlooking Peel Castle from Peel Hill) make sense.


The clue for Derby Fort

Solution 3, however ("a gully 85 paces north-east of Meayll Circle on Mull Hill, near Spanish Head"), sounds weird to me, as the bit of map provided shows a locality -- our locality right now, in fact -- that is miles away from Mull/Meayll Circle.


This doesn't show the Mull Circle, which is further south

Solution 4 ("in an ivy-covered wall near a kiosk within Ramsey city’s park") was never fully explained: "We do not know of the exact location but doubt it still exists. Perhaps this vintage photo shows the kiosk as it is in a park in Ramsey."

Apparently, only three of the prizes were found.

***

Three final curiosities:

-- I learnt from Christie that the Epsom Derby originated on the Isle of Man, and was first run on Langness: "The 7th Earl of Derby, after whom the race is named and who was also the Lord of Mann, instituted the race, through a written command, dated July 1669. He also donated a cup for what became known as the 'Manx Derby'. It wasn’t until 1780 that the Derby was run at Epsom."


From the above source, manuscripts setting out the rules for the Manx Derby for 1691-93. One of the provisions stated that eligibility was limited to animals born on the Island or on the Calf of Man...

-- I was a bit sceptical about the surname Mylecharane, never having come across it. But it is a bona fide version of what is more commonly rendered as Mylcraine (and there's loads more interesting detail in that article about old Manx surnames).

-- In 2003, Agatha Christie and Manx Gold featured in a stamp set issued by Isle of Man Post. The tiny text at the bottom of the stamp presents the poem that opens the story. Christie appeared alongside five other literary figures associated (with widely varying degrees of closeness) with the Island. These are Nigel Kneale, George MacDonald Fraser, Hall Caine, Mona Douglas, and Barbara Taylor Bradford...