This took place in the Great Hall which was opened to the public for the first time. Sellé was awarded a Lambeth Music Doctorate by Archbishop Sumner in 1857. The 1850s to the 1860s were his most prolific as a composer. The British Library archive has around forty published pieces by Sellé and Cambridge University Library has eleven. The majority are from the middle decades of the century. They are relatively short pieces for the piano and organ. The piano compositions are light and easily accessible in style, essentially salon pieces. His work illustrates his love of the composers of the First Viennese School and places Sellé within the romantic tradition of English music. In 1886, he was commissioned by The Shelley Society to provide music for "Hellas", a lyrical drama by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This was performed in October 1894 with the actress Alma Murray in the lead role. The musical score came in for much artistic criticism but remains Sellé's best known score and is still available and in print. Sellé's obituary mentions a love of Beethoven whom he refers to as ’his dear master’. Sellé's inclination was to favour an establishment view of classical music reinforced by his known dislike of ‘modern music’. Throughout his career as a teacher Sellé maintained a close musical relationship with many of his pupils. He played the organ at the marriage of his former pupil Princess Mary of Cambridge and was by the accounts that still exist a convivial, loquacious man with a string of anecdotes that made him exceptional company. In later life he was to become a familiar character in his community with an affectation of wearing what was described as a 'sombrero'. Sellé retired as organist at the Chapel Royal in 1886 at the age of seventy three. A Liberal and supporter of Gladstone, Sellé was an active member of his community taking part in the issues of the day. He was a member of the Richmond Select Vestry (Parish Council) from 1853 until his death. He also stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate when Richmond received its Charter of Incorporation. He made an unsuccessful attempt to bring about the opening of the Richmond Public Library for which he was a serving committee member. At the time of his death he left a widow and two adult daughters, one of whom was married to Harry Buxton Forman, a leading bibliographer, rare manuscripts editor and scholar of all things Shelley. His only adult son Guarnerius (so-named after the Italian violin makers Guarneri) pre-deceased him by nine years as did two other daughters.