The oldest system of legal descriptions for real estate is:

• A. metes and bounds
• B. lot and block
• C. government survey
• D. street address

Answer: (A)

Metes and bounds describes land by measured distances from a starting point and by boundaries defined by natural or familiar landmarks. This approach comes from English common law and was brought to the American colonies, making it the earliest form of legal land description. A description begins at a point of beginning, then traces a sequence of directions and distances, using monuments like rivers, trees, rocks, or even man-made reference points, and it ends when it circles back to the starting point.

The other methods came later. The government survey system laid out a rectangular grid of townships and ranges to organize vast tracts of land after independence. Lot and block descriptions arise from subdividing land into plats and identifying lots within a recorded block. Street addresses are convenient identifiers for location but aren’t by themselves precise legal descriptions for conveying property.