A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sought in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched 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 stench. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and saturated th

The year the year of our Lord eight hundred and forty-five AD. A chill wind blasted across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent carrying salt and fear. The Norsemen were upon us, a ravenous swarm of warriors seeking plunder. Their longships, like serpents, sliced through the waters, their flags fluttering in the wind. A city once confident n