and
Strathfieldsay were honored by their presence. Ireland was thrice
visited. Wales more than once. The first visit to Scotland was made
in 1842, another in 1844, and from 1847 only one year passed without
a long residence in the north--first at Ardverachie, on Loch Laggan,
and then at what was to be their Highland home on Deeside. Repeated
visits were also made to the Continent, sometimes in state and
sometimes in as much privacy as could be commanded.

It is when we come to this bright time, so full of fresh interest
and of a delightful freedom, that we have the advantage of the
queen's own "Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands."
Her visit to Edinburgh in 1842, and the drive by Birnam and
Aberfeldy to Taymouth, and the splendor of the reception, when, amid
the cheers of a thousand Highlanders and the wild notes of the
bagpipes, she was welcomed by Lord Breadalbane, evidently stirred
every feeling of romance. "It seemed," she wrote, "as if a great
chieftain of olden feudal times was receiving his sovereign." It
appeared like a new world, when, throwing off for a time the
restrictions of state, she found herself at Blair two years
afterward, climbing the great hills of Atholl, and from the top of
Tulloch looking forth on the panorama of mountain and glen. "It was
quite romantic; here we were with only this Highlander behind us
holding the ponies, not a house, not a creature near us but the
pretty Highland sheep, with their horns and black faces. It was the
most delightful, most romantic, ride and walk I ever had." These
early visits to Scotland inspired her with her love for the
Highlands and the Highlanders. She found there quite a world of
poetry. The majestic scenery, the fresh, bracing air, the
picturesqueness of the kilted gillies, the piping and the dancing,
and the long days among the heather, recalled scenes which Sir
Walter Scott has glorified for all time, and which are especially
identified with the fortunes of the unhappy Stuarts, of whom she is
now the nearest representative.

It was in 1848 that the court proceeded for the first time to
Balmoral, then a picturesque but small castle. The air of Deeside
had been recommended by Sir James Clark, the queen's physician, and
his anticipation of the benefits to be derived from residence there
was so completely realized that although four years passed before
the property was actually purchased, yet preparations were made for
establishing there