A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

62 OF THE BAR.
Cowy. Sir James Balfour, in his Book of Blazons, gives for arms to STRAITON of
that Ilk, barry nebule of ten pieces, argent and azure. Bars then are carried plain,
ingrailed, waved, embattled, and of other forms of lines before given in Plate II.
There are divers opinions concerning the number of bars that can be contained
in one field : Some say more, others less ; but, according to the proportion of the
bar, without diminishing it, the field will contain but three : Yet to the number
of four they are ordinarily blazoned bars ; and if they be above that number, thcy
are termed barn/lets or closets.
When the field is filled with such pieces, as fesses and bars, we must consider
whether they be of equal or unequal numbers; if of the last, we mention those of
the greatest number first, taking the same for the field, and the smallest number
last, as being the charge. Thus, in the former blazons, for example, that of
four bars counter-embattled azure : Here there are
Straiten of Lauriston, argent,
five pieces, of argent, the field, and four of azure, the charge. But, when the piece?
are of equal number, then we say, fessy, barry, and barruly of four, six, eight, or
ten, as in the following examples :
Fig. 19. Plate IV. The province of ZEALAND in the Netherlands, barry wavey of
four pieces, argent and azure, on a chief or, a lion naissant gules. Which Chifle-
tius blazons thus, Fascia quatuor ex argenteo & cyano undulatim fusee, caput scuti.
aureum, leone coccineo (qui symbolum Hollandicum est) emergente impressum. Here
the bars waved, as in the arms of Meldrum, Lochlin, Drummond, and Zealand,
as we observed before, are taken for the waves of the sea, or of water ; so also
in the following blazon. The arms of Hungary, barry of eight pieces (the French
say fad, the Latins, fasciolc^ argent and gules. The four pieces argent, are
said, by heralds, to represent the four principal rivers that tlnvart the country of
Hungary ; and the other four pieces gules, the fertile red ground of the country.
When the number of these pieces exceed eight, the French, in place of barry,
.y burette of ten ; and some of the English will say barry of ten : As Sandford,.
in his Blazon of the Arms of VALENCE, barry of twelve pieces,, argent and azure,
.in orle of eight martlets gules; which John Hastings Earl of Pembroke quartered
as a coat of alliance with his own. And our heralds also say, barn' of ten pieces,
argent and azure, over all a lion rampant gules, carried by the name of. JACKSON ;
as Mr Pont, in his Manuscript. .
The abstract or diminutive of the bar to the half, is called by the English a
closet, and the fourth part of a bar is called by them a barrulet ; yet when the
iield consists of twelve of them, they do not say closette or barulette, but barry of
ten or twelve, and say also sometimes, twelve pieces bar-ways: So that closets and.
barrulets are not mentioned in English blazons, but when the pieces are of an odd
number, as argent five closets azure: The French, as is said before, for a bar, say,
face en devise; and the diminutive of it, they call a tr angle; which I take to be.
he same with the English closet, of which Menestrier gives an example, viz.
argent, five tr angles gules ; and says, that tr angles are never borne in arms, but of
ai odd. number : So that the French never say tr angle, nor the English closette,
when the pieces are of an even number. Menestrier in his description of the
trangle, or tringle, says, it is a straight line made by a carpenter's rule, and that
tlie
glaziers
in France, call the bars of windows, to which the is
glass fastened,
'ingles; and the ropes, which are stretched from one side of a river to the
'
other, for drawing boats back and fore, are' called trangles. When these diminutives of the fesse or bar, are placed two and two in a shield,
^ are called, bars gemels, from the word gemelii, twins; being in couples:
\nd upon the same account, the French call them juinelle
s ; the Latins, fasciolte
jcmince, or geininata: ; and when three and three are joined together, they are called
by the French, tierces; as by the following examples; argent, three bars gemeh
.f; overall, a lion sable, by FAIRFAX Lord Fairfax in England. Our heralds
:aake these arms barruly of twelve, argent and gules, a lion rampant sable ; and do
not join the bars gules, two and two, as in fig. 28. ; for example of tierces, azure,
three tierces or, which Menestrier gives ; as also Monsieur Baron, for the arms of
Bourburg in France.
The French say of the faces, as of the pales before, when they are opposite to
one another in metal and colour: and call them then contreface, fig. 21. as in the