This architectural activity, based upon liberal but insufficient bequests, somewhat excuses the systematic begging petitions with which the College approached the Irish Parliament for the rebuilding of the Front Square, Theatre, and Chapel, petitions which that Parliament seemed never tired of granting, and yet never able to satisfy. If the taste for fine building and the Parliament in College Green had not both expired with the end of the century, Trinity College would now be the most splendidly housed College in the world. Even as it is, intelligent visitors cannot but be struck with the massive and dignified character of its buildings. Queen Anne and George I. had already granted (in three sums) £15,000 for the Library. George II. granted £45,000 for the present Front Square and Examination Hall. George III., besides the relief of £70 yearly in pavement-tax, granted (in 1787) £3,000, in response to a petition for £12,000. So that, in all, the country granted the College at least £60,000 for building during the eighteenth century.[82] It is set forth in these various petitions that the beauty of the metropolis is one of the objects to be attained, as well as the health of the students, and accommodation for increasing numbers.[83] There was a curious hesitation about the plan of the west front. A central dome and two cupolas at the north and south ends were designed; the south cupola was actually finished. Anyone who enters the present gateway will see clearly that it is designed to sustain a dome. But this dome was never built; the southern cupola was even taken down in 1758, and the front left as it now stands.[84] These buildings are still far the best and most comfortable in the College. All the bedrooms have fire-places, and even the inner walls are nearly three feet thick. The rooms in the towers and beside the gate are very spacious; and as we may presume that the streets in front of the College were not so noisy as they now are, were evidently intended as residences for Fellows, and were occupied by them exclusively till the rise of the various societies, to which they have afforded excellent reading and committee rooms. Thus they remain to the present day a noble and practical monument of the enterprise shown by the College and the Irish Parliament in the eighteenth century. It is now no longer the city only, but the country which is interested in the College. Constant private bequests added to the public liberalities no small increments; and so far as material prosperity was concerned, the history of the College during the century is one of continued growth in popularity and importance.