Bar Barry

Bar, Barry. The bar is one of the honourable ordinaries in the science of Heraldry. It should contain one-fifth part of the field, and is formed by two horizontal and parallel lines crossing the escutcheon from side to side, and it never occurs singly. In this it differs from the fesse, though the latter, whilst containing a third part thereof, always occupies a fixed point in the centre of the shield, whereas a bar is not confined to one place. When the field itself is composed of a number of bars alternately of different tinctures, it is said to be barry of so many (usually six or eight). The diminutives of the bar are the closet and the barrulet. and this last gives its name to the term barruletty, which, though sometimes confounded with "barry," should explain itself.