THE THAMES RAN FOUL: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

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

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind blasted 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 glory. Their longships, like beasts of the north, sliced through the waters, their flags billowing in the wind. A city once proud now trembled beneat