A watercolour showing Queen Victoria driving to the House of Lords, past the Courts of Justice, in the Gold State Coach, with an escort of Life Guards, to open Parliament.

Victoria was accompanied by Prince Albert for the last time to the Opening of Parliament on this occasion. After his death in December 1861 she rarely attended the ceremony, and never again read her speech.

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album IX. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.