Now that the work on the Theological-Political Treatise was behind him and the book in press, Spinoza decided it was time to move to The Hague. He may have begun to tire of life in the country, with its various drawbacks. He probably also sought easier access to the intellectual life of the city. With his many friends and acquaintances in town, he would have found it much more convenient to live there rather than to commute from Voorburg. They reportedly encouraged him in this design. “He had many friends in The Hague,” Colerus says, “some in the military, others of high position and eminence, who often visited and discoursed with him. It was at their request that he finally went to live in The Hague.” Spinoza left Voorburg sometime at the end of 1669 or early in 1670 and initially took some rooms in the rear of the third floor – essentially an attic – of a house on a back wharf called De Stille Veerkade (The Quiet Ferry Quay). The house was owned by a widow named Van der Werve, and she would be Colerus's own landlady when he lodged in the same rooms twenty years later. Her husband, a lawyer named Willem, had recently died, and she was apparently renting rooms to make up for the lost income. She told Colerus that Spinoza generally kept to himself, often having his meals in his rooms. He sometimes did not come out for several days.