Chapter 5 begins a closer examination of the text included with the ‘lost’ and ‘runaway’ notices. Description, and more particularly object description, was an emerging textual praxis in the eighteenth century. It relied on writers understanding the relevant features of particular ‘things’ to make them visible within a particular culture. In analysing the ‘lost’ and ‘runaway’ notices, it becomes clear that readers and writers were aware of the salient features needed to describe different things, such as watches and dogs. What becomes apparent within this chapter is that different languages of possession existed for different possessions. The second half of the chapter then explores the forms of knowledge and memory required to write descriptions of absent ‘things’. It finds different methods of recording at play, such as noting down salient details in diaries and memorandum books. It also finds that individuals often did not rely on their own memory but rather called upon the records and knowledge of others, such as watchmakers. Here we see evidence of material literacy and knowledge, but also of how it was shared and enacted by a wider community.