THE artist has here represented a style of dwelling-house architecture which is fast passing away, and will soon altogether cease to exist. Houses of this kind seem to have been originally erected from the cheapness of the materials, and for the purpose of economizing building-ground space. To attain the latter object, beams, as shown in the print, were projected from the first storey, and an out-shot and additional structure raised upon them, thus offering a great obstruction to ventilation, and affording an inconvenient, cold, and comfortless dwelling. When situated in a close, houses of this kind were generally occupied by working people, or by those who rented a small shop or bothy in the front street, and lodged themselves and families in one of these fragile-looking tenements behind. In some rare cases these wooden houses were tenanted by persons of a more substantial character, and we may mention, as the most prominent instance of which we have heard, that so recently as the close of last century the firm of Francis Reid & Sons, watchmakers, occupied a large wooden structure in the close opposite 77, both as their dwelling-house, work-shop, and sale-shop. These gentlemen were the first to give a stimulus to the watchmaking and jewellery business in Glasgow; and however humble their premises may have been, they did a large and lucrative business, and off-shoots from their concern branched into some of the principal establishments at present existing in Glasgow. We have no story to tell regarding the houses represented in the print; in their better days they were occupied by decent native tradesmen, but for a long succession of years they have been in the possession of the Irish, whose annals would furnish nothing attractive. Two hundred years ago wooden houses of this kind formed the majority of the Saltmarket closes ; but a great fire having broken out on 3rd November, 1677, the upper part of the street on both sides was destroyed as far as the Tron Church on the west, and two or three tenements in the Gallowgate on the east. From the rapidity with which these timber structures were mowed down by the flames on that occasion, the wisdom of replacing them with stone erections became apparent, and since then very few timber houses have been put down in the city, excepting in obscure back lanes, and on a very humble scale. As we have said, they will speedily disappear altogether, for the Dean of Guild Court will not permit a renewal of buildings in this style, when the present houses fall or are pulled down from natural decay. A stone inserted in the door-way of a one-storey house at the bottom of this close hears the inscription, "H. Br., J. H., 1727."