A watercolour showing a view of Lochnagar. The mountain is shown in the background with further Highland hills in front. Tree tops are shown in the foreground to the right. Inscribed below mounted sheet: Loch Nagar from the Peat road. Inscribed lower right: VR coloured from recollection Sept: 18 - 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.