50 THE NEW FOREST 



Though not particularly like a bishop, Mr. 

 Culley would have rivalled any bishop that ever 

 dwelt in a palace in that he was " given to 

 hospitality" in a marked degree. He never 

 allowed me to come to London, as I very fre- 

 quently had to do, without insisting on my 

 dining with him, generally at the Oxford and 

 Cambridge Club (the cellar there is world- 

 famous). Not unfrequently he collected very 

 pleasant small bachelor parties on such occasions. 

 Some of these have been the pleasantest among 

 my reminiscences. It was at one of these small 

 parties that I first met Sir Edward Grey (who 

 was a ward of Mr. Culley's) when quite a young 

 man. I well recollect our host's remark to me, 

 when we were talking over business after the 

 others had gone away when he said, referring 

 to his late ward, " That young man is sure to go 

 to the top of the tree." He could hardly have 

 foreseen the time when the name of Sir Edward 

 Grey would become a household word in every 

 capital of Europe. Mr. Culley died when of no 

 great age. I always thought his life was short- 

 ened by the strenuous work he did at the time 

 of the Committee of the House of Commons 

 which sat in the sessions of 1889-90. His grasp 

 of the whole subject was marvellous. The multi- 

 tude of figures, schedules, returns, and Acts of 



