HACKERAY.

The world's pomp and power sits there on this hand: on that,
stands up for God's truth one man, the _poor miner Hans Luther's_
son.--CARLYLE.

They invited me in the _emperor their master's_ name.--SWIFT.

I had naturally possessed myself of _Richardson the painter's_
thick octavo volumes of notes on the "Paradise Lost."--DE
QUINCEY.

They will go to Sunday schools to teach classes of little
children the age of Methuselah or the dimensions of _Og the king
of Bashan's_ bedstead.--HOLMES.

More common still is the practice of turning the possessive into an
equivalent phrase; as, _in the name of the emperor their master_,
instead of _the emperor their master's name_.

[Sidenote: _Possessive and no noun limited._]

67. The possessive is sometimes used without belonging to any noun
in the sentence; some such word as _house_, _store_, _church_,
_dwelling_, etc., being understood with it: for example,--

Here at the _fruiterer's_ the Madonna has a tabernacle of fresh
laurel leaves.--RUSKIN.

It is very common for people to say that they are disappointed in
the first sight of _St. Peter's_.--LOWELL.

I remember him in his cradle at _St. James's_.--THACKERAY.

Kate saw that; and she walked off from the _don's_.--DE QUINCEY.

[Sidenote: _The double possessive._]

68. A peculiar form, a double possessive, has grown up and become a
fixed idiom in modern English.

In most cases, a possessive relation was expressed in Old English by
the inflection _-es_, corresponding to _'s_. The same relation was
expressed in French by a phrase corresponding to _of_ and its object.
Both of these are now used side by side; sometimes they are used
together, as one modifier, making a double possessive. For this there
are several reasons:--

[Sidenote: _Its advantages: Euphony_.]

(1) When a word is modified by _a_, _the_, _this_, _that_, _every_,
_no_, _any_, _each_, etc., and at the same time by a possessive noun,
it is distasteful to place the possessive before the modified noun,
and it would also alter the meaning: we place it after the modified
noun with _of_.

[Sidenote: _Emphasis._]

(2) It is more emphatic than the simple possessive, especially when
used with _this_ or _that_, for it brings out the modified word in
strong relief.

[Sidenote: _Clearness._]

(3) It prevents ambiguity. For example, in such a sentence as, "This