View of Victoria looking west from the garden of the Chief Justice (1846)

I first came across below account and B/W print of this photo reproduced in Old Hong Kong (c.1933). So I choose to re-post here with this colored image and the text.
The narrative may serve a good reference of this locale for 1840-70s (over 60 years before the author's time)

    . . .    . . .    . . .                     the Chief Justice of the
time had his residence - the ridge whereon the old 
Seamen's Hospital stood, afterwards taken over by the Navy. 
The Chief Justice's house was evidently at the northern
extremity of this ridge, immediately above Spring
Gardens, then a fashionable quarter, as we have seen
by another picture of Bruce's. In the immediate
foreground of the picture reproduced here we can see
some of the fine houses standing there, and the wharves
which served then as the Albany Godowns, which are to
be seen just below the hill. Bruce drew his perspectives
most faithfully, and nothing of the scene in 1846 has been
omitted.

    In visualising the place to-day, one must remember
that the seafront shown here was partly reclaimed in 1873,
and the former praya now runs approximately along the line
of Wanchai Road. Since then, a further reclamation has
taken the seafront much further out, forming the Praya Last
area of to-day.
                  
    The site of the Albany Godowns was recalled by Albany
Street, now a good way inland, and renamed Tai Yuen Street.

    Bruce's picture takes in the whole length of the
old city waterfront, showing Queen's Road by the seashore,
with a town area only half as wide as it is at present:
indeed, practically all the water portion of the picture
is now dry land crowded with buildings! Thus do the
years bring vast changes to a developing seaport.

    There is an old plan in the Land Office which shows
the whole of the alignment of the seafront at the time
this view was sketched, and one realises how accurately
the artist adhered to the scene before him. The two jutting
out stone wharves are shown in the plan exactly where he
has put them.

The views by Bruce were made into lithograph. Above image appears a mildly coloured one by hand, which I picked for research only.
As it is said, there are 12 pictures in this series of M. Bruce. From the web, there may be 1 to 2 pictures not usually displayed. The RMG website only contains 7 of M. Bruce's works.
See if some readers may have new findings of them.  

The original lithograph could be viewed here, in buff and black.

   Ref ID : PAH2787

The remaining 4 pictures of 12  (last updated : 23 Mar. 2026)

The four less common views of the 12 are likely as below, which were not tagged on gwulo either.

    The Officers Quarters looking towards Victoria  8 Sept 1846
    The Residence of the Lieutenant-Governor          1846
    View of Jardine Mathison's looking North West from Causeway Bay 28 Sept 1846 (PAH2788)
    South side of Chuck-pye-wau bay looking East                                          29 Nov. 1846 (PAH2785)

Murdoch Bruce had worked as Overseer of Roads and Superintendent of Convict Labour, under Land Office, first appointed Sept. 1842. 
Earliest recorded is on Blue Book 1844, but he was discharged as on the Blue Book 1847 ^(**). Meanwhile, he is named on the Hongkong Almanack 1846 (but not 1848, 1850). 

As the Friend of China, a passenger Mr Murdoch Bruce had arrived by 'Zephyr' and departed per 'Mor' in 1848, on end Feb and early June respectively.
Connecting onto the Strait Times of 1st July, a M. Bruce was listed, arrived from Penang and departed per 'Mor' for Madras and Calcutta.

His original advert in 1846 is as below :     

^(**) replaced by W. Bowden Feb. 1847, as the Report by the Surveyor General on the progress of the Department during the year in one Appendix after the Blue Book 'Gaols' section, physical page marked '10' on top, total 14 pages.