A watercolour showing a Highland landscape looking towards Monaltrie. A small building is shown behind a row of trees and bushes to the right. Hills are shown in the background. Inscribed below mounted sheet: View of the Moss of Mon Altrie [sic] taken from the back of the House at Balmoral. Inscribed lower right: VR. del. Sept: 13. 1848 - A double pen and ink line border is shown around the edge of the mounted sheet. Queen Victoria visited Balmoral Castle for the first time in September 1848. The Queen was quite taken with Balmoral from her first visit. After arriving on 8 September 1848, Queen Victoria describes Balmoral in her journal as "a pretty little Castle, in the old Scotch style... In front are a nice lawn & garden, with a high wooded hill behind, & at the back, there is a wood. The hills rise all around." The Royal family originally leased the estate before buying it outright in 1851. In her journal entry of 13 September 1848, Queen Victoria describes how she walked up to a local cain with Prince Albert and then "came down & sketched" while her husband went deer stalking.