Referendum countdown: Queen hopes Scots will ‘think carefully’

She made the comment after attending a church service near her Balmoral estate.

She is reported to have told a well-wisher: “Well, I hope people will think very carefully about the future.”

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “We never comment on private exchanges or conversations.”

Meanwhile, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has said that people now should take the chance to shape Scotland.

In his sermon live on BBC Radio Four’s Sunday Worship at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh yesterday, he said: “I’m one of those people who has spent a lifetime trying to see both sides of every argument, trying to work out complicated ‘middle ways’ that keep as many people as possible content, but I’m not going to get away with that this week.

“Like the people of Israel standing before Elijah, I need to come off the fence. The real success of Thursday will be that, whatever the outcome, every voice will continue to play its part in shaping the kind of Scotland people in Scotland vote for.”