A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: 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 discharges had transformed London's lifeblood into a nauseating odor. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind blasted 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 wolves, sliced through the waters, their standards billowing in the wind. A city once confident now trembled beneath the thre