Relics from Mary's final moments go on show

• The Book of Hours

For the first time since her grisly death, the prayer book which belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland yesterday.

The book of hours was put on exhibition for one day only at the nation's oldest boarding school.

The slender volume, bound in red silk velvet, was carried by Mary as she made her way to be beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire in 1587, after being accused of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I. After her death, it is thought that her closest confidantes secretly took the book to France, before it came into possession of the Society of Jesus, a religious order of the Catholic Church.

Since then the Jesuits have kept the prayer book safe, even though its existence - let alone whereabouts - has been known only to a select few. After more than four centuries, however, the small ornate book was put on display for pupils at Loretto School in Musselburgh, with its guardians hinting at a longer-term exhibition to come.

The idea was the brainchild of Jonathan Hewat, recently appointed director of external affairs at Loretto. The 41-year-old had worked for ten years at Stonyhurst College, a prestigious Catholic boarding school in Clitheroe, Lancashire, the permanent home of the book of hours.

The fleeting exhibition, held in the school's Pinkie House, brought the text together with the ornate mother-of-pearl crucifix Mary was also carrying before her execution, on loan from Abbotsford Trust in Melrose.

"It's a momentous day in Scottish history," Mr Hewat said. "All the children had been studying Mary, Queen of Scots from textbooks, but with the greatest of respect, to learn history out of books is not quite the same as seeing the poignancy of these objects first-hand."

Jan Graffius, the curator at Stonyhurst who travelled up to Musselburgh to deliver a lecture on the book, told The Scotsman: "We think Elizabeth Curle, one of two women who accompanied Mary to the scaffold, picked up the book, went to France and gave it to her nephew, who became a priest and went to the Scots College at Douai.

"Around 1640, Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was canonised and there was a big celebration at the Scots College, and it's quite likely the book was given to the Jesuits as a gift.

"We don't know what exactly happened at the scaffold, but any relics or reminders of Mary were probably being confiscated."

The book, depicted in several portraits of Mary, was made for Mary Tudor, but passed to Mary, Queen of Scots. It has never been part of a major exhibition and can only be seen by appointment at Stonyhurst's library.

Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Church, said: "This is a significant part of Scotland's ancient Catholic heritage and it would be wonderful if it was possible for the book of hours to return to Scotland in the future for longer." Asked about the prospects for a longer exhibition in Scotland, Mrs Graffius was optimistic.

"It's very fragile and has to be treated very carefully, and a request for its loan would have to go to the society, but with all those caveats in place it would be lovely for the book to be seen in Scotland," she said.