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 repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind swept across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent carrying salt and fear. The Norsemen had arrived, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking riches. Their longships, like beasts of the north, sliced through the waters, their flags waving in the wind. A city once peaceful now trembled beneath the t