bjective form
with _of_ would, perhaps, be still more agreeable for these peculiar names.
Spencer, whose Grammar abounds with useless repetitions, repeats his note
elsewhere, with the following illustrations: "E. g. _Olmstead's_ and
_Comstock's_ Philosophies. _Gould's Adam's_ Latin Grammar."--_Ib._, p. 106.
The latter example is no better suited to his text, than "_Peter's wife's
mother_;" and the former is fit only to mean, "Olmstead's _Philosophies_
and Comstock's Philosophies." To speak of the two books only, say,"
Olmstead's _Philosophy_ and Comstock's."

OBS. 24.--The possessive sign is sometimes annexed to that part of a
compound name, which is, of itself, in the objective case; as, "At his
_father-in-law's_ residence." Here, "_At the residence of his
father-in-law_," would be quite as agreeable; and, as for the plural, one
would hardly think of saying, "Men's wedding parties are usually held at
their _fathers-in-law's_ houses." When the compound is formed with _of_, to
prevent a repetition of this particle, the possessive sign is sometimes
added as above; and yet the hyphen is not commonly inserted in the phrase,
as I think it ought to be. Examples: "The duke of Bridgewater's
canal;"--"The bishop of Landaff's excellent book;"--"The Lord mayor of
London's authority;"--"The captain of the guard's house."--_Murray's
Gram._, p. 176. "The Bishop of Cambray's writings on eloquence."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 345. "The bard of Lomond's lay is done."--_Queen's Wake_, p. 99.
"For the kingdom of God's sake."--_Luke_, xviii, 29. "Of the children of
Israel's half."--_Numbers_, xxxi, 30. From these examples it would seem,
that the possessive sign has a less intimate alliance with the possessive
case, than with the governing noun; or, at any rate, a dependence less
close than that of the objective noun which here assumes it. And since the
two nouns here so intimately joined by _of_, cannot be explained separately
as forming two cases, but must be parsed together as _one name_ governed in
the usual way, I should either adopt some other phraseology, or write the
compound terms with hyphens, thus: "The _Duke-of-Bridgewater's_
canal;"--"The _Bishop-of-Landaff's_ excellent book;"--"The _Bard-of-
Lomond's_ lay is done." But there is commonly some better mode of
correcting such phrases. With deference to Murray and others, "_The King of
Great Britain's prerogative_," [349] is but an untoward way of saying,
"_The prerogative of the British