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.
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:—
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.