âThe first copies of the Manchester Guardian, printed on the 5th of May, 1821, did not reach London until early the next morning. While all Manchester was busily conning the columns of the new paper at breakfast a messenger had been despatched to the Albion Hotel with a parcel of papers for London and containing letters between the folds addressed to a London agent whose duty it would be to see them delivered on arrival. At twelve oâclock the new safety coach would leave the Piccadilly stones for the capital, timed to run at eleven miles per hour and to pass through Stockport, Derby, Leicester, Northampton, Hockliffe, Dunstable, St Albans, and Barnet finally, if God permitted and the skill of the coachman allowed, due at the Golden Cross in the Strand, London, by six oâclock the following morning.