For boys with hearts as bold
As his who kept the bridge so well.
—Macaulay.
Preceding a gerund,—possessive, or objective?
408. Another point on which there is some variance in usage is such a construction as this: "We heard of Brown studying law," or "We heard of Brown's studying law."
That is, should the possessive case of a noun or pronoun always be used with the gerund to indicate the active agent? Closely scrutinizing these two sentences quoted, we might find a difference between them: saying that in the first one studying is a participle, and the meaning is, We heard of Brown, [who was] studying law; and that in the second, studying is a gerund, object of heard of, and modified by the possessive case as any other substantive would be.
But in common use there is no such distinction. Both types of sentences are found; both are gerunds; sometimes the gerund has the possessive form before it, sometimes it has the objective. The use of the objective is older, and in keeping with the old way of regarding the person as the chief object before the mind: the possessive use is more modern, in keeping with the disposition to proceed from the material thing to the abstract idea, and to make the action substantive the chief idea before the mind.
In the examples quoted, it will be noticed that the possessive of the pronoun is more common than that of the noun.
Objective.
The last incident which I recollect, was my learned and worthy patron falling from a chair.—Scott.
He spoke of some one coming to drink tea with him, and asked why it was not made.—Thackeray.