Saturday 3 October 1663 Up, being well pleased with my new lodging and the convenience of having our mayds and none else about us, Will lying below. So to the office, and there we sat full of business all the morning. At noon I hometo dinner, and then abroad to buy a bell to hang by our chamber door to call the mayds. Then to the office, and met Mr. Blackburne, who came to know the reason of his kinsman (my Will) his being observed by his friends of late to droop much. I told him my great displeasure against him and the reasons of it, to his great trouble yet satisfaction, for my care over him, and how every thing I said was for the good of the fellow, and he will take time to examine the fellow about all, and to desire my pleasure concerning him, which I told him was either that he should became a better servant or that we would not have him under my roof to be a trouble. He tells me in a few days he will come to me again and we shall agree what to do therein. I home and told my wife all, and am troubled to see that my servants and others should be the greatest trouble I have in the world, more than for myself.* We then to set up our bell with a smith very well, and then I late at the office. So home to supper and to bed. Will Hewer A navy official and merchant, and a life-long friend of Pepys. *Will must “become a better servant,” or he will not remain “under my roof to be a trouble.” That is the usual early-modern household logic. A servant is part of the master’s establishment; failure is both a personal annoyance and a breach of order. As mentioned previously, this relationship flourished given time. Nicolaes Maes, The Idle Servant