#424 Belgium...Thanks Lucas!

The stamp on the top was issued on Apr.15,2010 celebrating 50th birthday of Prince Philippe,who is the eldest son and heir apparent of Albert II, King of the Belgians and Queen Paola.

The stamp below is from the 2010 issue of Literature: European Writers in Brussels in the 19th century showing Charlotte & Emily Brontë.

Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell.

Emily Jane Brontë (1818–1848) was an English novelist and poet, now best remembered for her novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, between Charlotte and Anne. She published under the androgynous pen name Ellis Bell.

In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enroll in a boarding school run by Constantin Heger (1809 – 1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1814 – 1891). In return for board and tuition, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the boarding school was cut short when their aunt died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the boarding school. Her second stay at the boarding school was not a happy one; she became lonely, homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She finally returned to Haworth in January 1844 and later used her time at the boarding school as the inspiration for some of The Professor and Villette.