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 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 stench. The stench was oppressive, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and infused the very

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent carrying salt and fear. The Norsemen were amongst us, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking glory. Their longships, like beasts of the north, sliced through the waters, their flags waving in the wind. A city once proud now trembled beneath th