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 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 whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent emanating from salt and fear. The Norsemen were upon us, a ravenous swarm of warriors seeking glory. Their longships, like beasts of the north, sliced through the waters, their standards waving in the wind. A city once peaceful now tremble