THE THAMES RAN FOUL: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that baked the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and saturat

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent emanating from salt and fear. The Norsemen were upon us, a horde swarm of warriors seeking plunder. Their longships, like serpents, sliced through the waters, their banners billowing in the wind. A city once peaceful now trembled beneath t